This thesis examines the founding and development of Pinesdale, Montana. Established by the Mormon fundamentalist leader Rulon Allred and his group in 1961, the town served as a haven for those practicing polygamy as well as an opportunity for group members to live a Mormon form of communalism known as the United Order. Compelled by the social upheaval and shifting cultural standards in the United States and instability in international affairs during the Cold War era, the fundamentalists considered the two practices to be essential to Christian perfection and preparation for a biblical Apocalypse and Millennium. But as a sect comprised of individuals who broke away from the Latter-day Saint Church, dissension continued to characterize the group, compromising communal efforts. The conflict between communalism and individualism in the community recalled an archetypical American struggle that can be traced to Puritan communities and seen repeated in the history of the American West. Like other groups in the West, Pinesdale wanted to preserve its autonomy, but when it sought self-government by incorporating as a city, it became dependent upon the American government. This pushed the community further into the mainstream, a tendency accelerated by the loss of an apocalyptic paradigm at the end of the Cold War. The story of Pinesdale here contributes to a growing scholarship of communalism in America and ethnic groups in the West that is more inclusive and less exceptional, and demonstrates how American the community had been in the context of the postwar period.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-05192009-103229 |
| Date | 01 June 2009 |
| Creators | Weidow, Lesley June |
| Contributors | Kyle G. Volk, Dan Flores, David L. Moore |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/octet-stream |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05192009-103229/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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