Durante as décadas de 1980 e 1990, a Western History, campo de estudos que se dedica à história do Oeste norte-americano, enfrentou uma tormenta intelectual de proporções pouco vistas antes em suas searas. O motivo para tal inquietação foi o surgimento da assim chamada “New Western History”, movimento que tinha por principal meta reescrever a história regional a partir de uma completa reestruturação de suas bases intelectuais, para tentar salvar o campo de uma suposta crise de identidade surgida ainda nos anos 1960. Neste caso, o principal alvo destes revisionistas foi a antiga historiografia constituída à imagem das teses de Frederick Jackson Turner sobre a fronteira norteamericana. Aqui, a idéia era substituir uma narrativa histórica considerada excessivamente otimista por uma que realçasse os aspectos trágicos do avanço norte-americano em direção ao Pacífico. Esta tentativa, contudo, de se escrever uma história trágica encontrou forte oposição não só entre segmentos da historiografia profissional, mas também entre elementos da opinião pública, num debate que tinha mais a ver com a própria identidade dos Estados Unidos do que com questões meramente historiográficas. / During the 1980s and 1990s, the Western History, field of studies dedicated to the the history of the American West, went through a intellectual storm of proportions seldom seen before in its midst. The motive for such unrest was the arrival of the so-called “New Western History”, a movement whose main aim was the rewriting of the history of the West from the standpoint of a total reestructuring of the field’s intellectual foundations, in an attempt to save it from a crisis of identity that emerged still in the 1960s. In this case, the revisionists’ main target was the old historiography constituted in the image of Frederick Jackson Turner’s theses about the American frontier. Here, the idea was to substitute a historical narrative considered to be excessively optimistic for one that highlighted the tragic aspects of the American advance to the Pacific. However, this attempt to write a tragic history was met with a fierce opposition not only from segments of the professional historiography, but also from the public opinion itself, in a debate that had more to do with the very identity of the US and less with “mere” historiographical questions.

Durante as décadas de 1980 e 1990, a Western History, campo de estudos que se dedica à história do Oeste norte-americano, enfrentou uma tormenta intelectual de proporções pouco vistas antes em suas searas. O motivo para tal inquietação foi o surgimento da assim chamada “New Western History”, movimento que tinha por principal meta reescrever a história regional a partir de uma completa reestruturação de suas bases intelectuais, para tentar salvar o campo de uma suposta crise de identidade surgida ainda nos anos 1960. Neste caso, o principal alvo destes revisionistas foi a antiga historiografia constituída à imagem das teses de Frederick Jackson Turner sobre a fronteira norteamericana. Aqui, a idéia era substituir uma narrativa histórica considerada excessivamente otimista por uma que realçasse os aspectos trágicos do avanço norte-americano em direção ao Pacífico. Esta tentativa, contudo, de se escrever uma história trágica encontrou forte oposição não só entre segmentos da historiografia profissional, mas também entre elementos da opinião pública, num debate que tinha mais a ver com a própria identidade dos Estados Unidos do que com questões meramente historiográficas. / During the 1980s and 1990s, the Western History, field of studies dedicated to the the history of the American West, went through a intellectual storm of proportions seldom seen before in its midst. The motive for such unrest was the arrival of the so-called “New Western History”, a movement whose main aim was the rewriting of the history of the West from the standpoint of a total reestructuring of the field’s intellectual foundations, in an attempt to save it from a crisis of identity that emerged still in the 1960s. In this case, the revisionists’ main target was the old historiography constituted in the image of Frederick Jackson Turner’s theses about the American frontier. Here, the idea was to substitute a historical narrative considered to be excessively optimistic for one that highlighted the tragic aspects of the American advance to the Pacific. However, this attempt to write a tragic history was met with a fierce opposition not only from segments of the professional historiography, but also from the public opinion itself, in a debate that had more to do with the very identity of the US and less with “mere” historiographical questions.

In the decades following 1945, Americans moved increasingly out of cities into suburbs. The migration illustrated the emergence of a new, broader middle class as a result of growing postwar affluence. In the previous half-century, families living in a suburb could claim middle-class status. The emerging class built its identity on the forms and values adopted from this earlier, more affluent Victorian middle class. These adopted values were played out in a home designed around Progressive era ideals of the family. Through this Progressive filter, the new concept of the home was scaled down, without servants, and ceased existing wholly as the wife's sphere of influence--as in the Victorian version. The Progressive impulse also reduced the size of the house to make it more efficient, and through government subsidies shaped the home into a smaller, economically sized package. The financial framework that determined the shape of the postwar home also influenced the technology placed within its walls. This financially influenced technology particularly affected the shape and content of the kitchen. The new, efficient kitchen did not release women from their duty to provide daily family meals, but it did create a culturally safe space for men to cook as a hobby. In the postwar, suburban kitchen women and men contended with economic pressures and changing social realities which complicated the Victorian values and Progressive ideals. Middle-class women needed to leave the home for work, and--now separated from traditional urban social outlets--middle-class men sought refuge in the suburban home. By examining Sunset magazine's "Chefs of the West" column, traditional women's cookbooks and service magazines, men's magazines, building industry trade journals, and census reports, the kitchen demonstrates that women and men reshaped the home in response to changing middle-class values. While financing regulations at first shaped how the emerging middle class lived within the postwar, suburban home, residents reinterpreted the space as a reaction to the economic changes around them. This cycle continued with each new interpretation of the postwar single-family home.

Annie Proulx’s three Wyoming short story collections, Close Range, Bad Dirt, and Fine Just the Way It Is, tell regional stories that push against the myths surrounding the American West. Elements of Naturalism in her work reverse the paradigm of man’s dominance over the frontier. The cyclical nature of time in her stories shows the unfulfilling nature of nostalgia. She uses folk storytelling techniques to take an insider’s perspective and to utilize the subversive nature of dark humor.

In 1979, a handful of Nevada state officials sparked a movement to transfer the large unappropriated domain to the western states. For two years what became known as the Sagebrush Rebellion swept across the American West like brushfire, engaging westerners of all stripes in a heated dispute over the question of the public lands. In Utah, as elsewhere in the West, public officials, rural ranchers, miners, developers, academics, environmentalists, and concerned citizens joined the debate and staked sides. This episode underscored western relationships between people and nature and featured contests over competing ideologies in the West. But it probably did more harm than good in solving the problems of the West and even further polarized westerners against themselves. After just two years in the limelight, the Sagebrush Rebellion unspectacularly faded into public memory, partly as a result of environmental opposition but mostly because Ronald Reagan's administration steered public land policy in a new direction. Interior Secretary James Watt took steps to appease disgruntled westerners by loosening federal regulations on the public lands, but he opposed any efforts for a large-scale transfer. Thus the Sagebrush Rebellion ultimately failed; but still today the sentiment and conflicts that propelled it persist, continuing to color the panorama that is the American West.

Marie Ogden's Home of Truth colony—a religious community that was located in southern Utah during the 1930s and 40s—was part of a segment of the American religious landscape that has largely been overlooked. As such, her movement points to a significant gap in the historiography of American religion. In addition to documenting the history of this obscure community, I situate Marie Ogden as part of what I call the early new age of American religion, an underdeveloped part of the broader categories of metaphysical religion or Western esotericism. This thesis also points to several other overlooked figures from the same era, suggesting several avenues for further study.

For years historians of the American West have overlooked Utah when dealing with the subject of extrajudicial violence, while researchers of Mormonism have misread the existence of such violence in territorial Utah. The former asserts that Utah was free from extrajudicial proceedings and that such violence was nearly nonexistent within the contours of the Mormon kingdom. The latter maintains that any violence that existed in Utah was directly connected to the religious fanaticism of the Mormon populace in the region. The reality is that much of the extralegal violence in Utah was a result of the frontier, not the religion of the Mormons. Although episodes of bloodshed have been routinely categorized as religious zealotry, the evidence suggests that they are more properly catalogued within the context of western vigilantism—a practice well-documented and accepted among historians of the West. Utahans did employ extralegal means, like most other locales, for maintaining the existing social structure. Numerous factors led to conflicts of interests and, as was common during this time, violence became a part of life for early Utahans. It is the purpose of this examination to demonstrate how residents, leaders, and visitors in Utah justified the use of extrajudicial proceedings during the territorial period. Examining the violence that occurred in nineteenth-century Utah within the framework of the western extralegal culture provides a more nuanced understanding of the people of the region and demonstrates how their actions were not as aberrant as previous scholars have claimed. During the territorial period, Utahans experienced a significant amount of extralegal justice. The unique confluence of ethnic, religious, and political ideals led to clashes on the western frontier. There was no shortage of outlaws in Utah, nor of citizens and authorities capable and willing to go beyond the bounds of legal authority to maintain order within the territory. This thesis aims to properly place the Utah Territory in the broader framework of extralegal violence in the West and expand the historical understanding of summary justice in pre-statehood Utah.

The evidence presented in this thesis advocates an increased level of scholarly interest in English working-class Mormon converts. To illustrate who these people were, and what their roles were as part of Mormon story, this regional study introduces and makes available over twelve hundred Staffordshire Mormons, and asks questions of the collected statistical information. The conservative Staffordshire Mormons clearly assisted the establishment, and continuation, off a Zion in the American West. Much of the data confirms previous scholarship; however, those with “differing visions” of Mormonism (for example, the RLDS Church) attracted Staffordshire converts in larger numbers than previously suggested. The findings suggest a careful re-examination of the early British RLDS membership may reveal similar findings. If so, a reappraisal of RLDS-LDS history not only would be desirable, but also necessary.

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