<B>Remembering history’s heroines</B> Virtually anyone who has taken an American history course knows something about Sojourner Truth, the former slave who became a powerful abolitionist. Or Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who spent her life fighting for women’s right to vote. Even Margaret Sanger, the woman who promoted the use of contraception, registers some name recognition.

But few know of Rahel Gollup, the Jewish immigrant who came to the United States in 1892 to escape persecution. Gollup snuck across the Russian border with her aunt, made her way to Ellis Island and came of age in working class Manhattan. While her story is every bit as powerful and courageous as that of any American woman, it is virtually unknown.

That’s the genius of Gail Collins’ new book <B>America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines</B>. Collins reminds us that for every Susan B. Anthony, there are thousands of Rahel Gollups, women whose stories may have been overlooked by history, but who have collectively shaped American culture.

Collins the first woman to oversee the <I>New York Times</I> editorial pages offers a comprehensive, beautifully narrated history of America as seen through the eyes of women, famous and otherwise. She achieves the rare feat of presenting an exhaustively researched history that isn’t exhausting to read. Quite the opposite, <B>America’s Women</B> is so fascinating and detailed it could almost be called <I>Everything You Wanted to Know About American Women But Were Afraid to Ask</I>. How did colonial women handle menstruation and childbirth? Why did women submit to unwieldy hoop skirts and corsets so tight they caused miscarriages? How did the pioneer women of the late 1800s handle living in homes dug out of the sides of hills? But the book is not just a collection of interesting tidbits. The greatest accomplishment of <B>America’s Women</B> is that it weaves together the voices of so many different females. In Collins’ hands, it’s not hard to find the common thread between these women and to imagine the notion of a helpless fairer sex banished for good.

In the 1990s, most Americans had never heard of Bosnia, didn’t know a Croat from a Serb and couldn’t locate Yugoslavia on a map, even though Slobodan Milosevic’s ethnic cleansing a euphemism for state-sponsored genocide had produced the bloodiest European conflict since World War II. The mounting casualties were humiliating to leaders of the West, particularly to President Clinton, who in his inaugural address had promised that when the will and conscience of the international community is defied, we will act with peaceful diplomacy whenever possible, with force when necessary. The problem was that Clinton and his senior people were preoccupied with the economics of domestic policy and had developed no clear foreign policy. How the U.S. groped its way through this dilemma is the major focus of War in a Time of Peace, a work that adds to the legendary status of David Halberstam as an author and historian. His latest book is a fascinating examination of the dynamics of U.S. foreign policy after the Cold War, a period extending from one President Bush to another.

As he did in The Best and the Brightest, the number one national bestseller about the Vietnam War, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Halberstam probes the bureaucracy to reveal the interplay between the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and Congress. His perceptive portraits of powerful U.S. and foreign government officials and military officers offer clues to explain not only what they did, but why they did it. He relates their tactics, thoughts and personal dramas. For example, we learn that Defense Secretary William Cohen, the sole Republican in the Cabinet, managed to stir Clinton to action on a critical decision to bomb Iraq by not-so-subtly suggesting to him that any delay would show the world that his troubles with Ken Starr had paralyzed him. We learn that hard-liner Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher’s successor, didn’t mind that her colleagues referred to the Kosovo campaign as Madeleine’s War but was irked that the use of her first name hinted of sexism. And Halberstam tells of Milosevic’s pointing a gun to his head and threatening suicide while his daughter shouted, Do it, Daddy! Don’t surrender, Daddy! before police took him away. Halberstam’s last 11 books have attained New York Times best-seller status. War in a Time of Peace might well make it an even dozen.

Alan Prince is the former editor of the Miami Herald’s International Edition.

The Associated Press, which prides itself on speedy reporting, appalled the civilized world on September 29, 1999, when it broke a half-century-old story. The news report claimed that U.S. military forces massacred as many as 400 civilians in the early days of the Korean conflict. According to the report, the slaughter denied by the Army and hushed up for years occurred in July 1950 in the South Korean hamlet of No Gun Ri. The story earned the Pulitzer Prize for reporters Sang-Hun Choe, Charles Hanley and Martha Mendoza. In The Bridge at No Gun Ri, these wire-service staffers have added depth and breadth to their initial account. They tell how aging U.S. veterans and surviving Koreans have tried to cope with haunting memories and tragic losses. The result is an even-handed and engrossing account of the carnage and its consequences.

Why the massacre? U.S. troops feared enemy soldiers had donned peasant clothes and joined civilian refugees streaming southward toward American lines. Without a way to identify disguised infiltrators, the U.S. plan to eliminate them became simple: Kill everyone. When a large group of refugees paused to rest near a bridge, American planes strafed them, killing about 100. Hundreds of others, most of them children, women and old men, managed to take cover beneath the bridge. In the next three days, some 300 were shot to death. The American soldiers played with our lives like boys playing with flies, recalls a survivor.

The three writers, combing through thousands of documents and conducting hundreds of interviews, established a clear record of the atrocities. Their findings triggered a U.S. investigation leading to an expression of regret from former President Clinton.

The Korean survivors’ emotion-stirring tales show how innocent victims driven by the power of family love managed to persevere despite their irreparably damaged lives. When the book is closed, one question is likely to linger in the reader’s mind: Could I have kept on going as they did?

Ex-newsman Alan Prince served in the Army during the Korean War.

The United Nations was created from the strategic vision of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who deemed it essential that the world have an effective international security organization. Even before the U.S. entered World War II, Roosevelt’s administration had begun planning for a postwar world. FDR died on April 12, 1945, just two weeks before the San Francisco conference on the U.N. was set to begin. New president Harry Truman was facing other major foreign policy questions, but his strong belief in the U.N. concept led him to proceed with the conference. The story of that crucial meeting, at which 46 nations gathered for two months to establish the organization, is told in Stephen Schlesinger’s compelling new book Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations.

At the heart of the narrative are two little-known but extraordinary men. One is Secretary of State Edward Stettinius, head of the U.S. delegation, who did an outstanding job of forging consensus. The other was Russian ŽmigrŽ Leo Pasvolsky, a State Department official who was most responsible for writing the U.N. charter. His analytical skills and willingness to work behind the scenes made him indispensable.

Of the many issues covered at the San Francisco conference, probably the most contentious was that regarding the veto power in the Security Council. The understanding agreed to at Yalta gave the five permanent Security Council members absolute veto over “substantive matters” vague wording that prompted smaller nations to question the scope of the veto, a crisis that threatened the success of the conference. Among the journalists covering the event was a 27-year-old former naval officer, John F. Kennedy. In summarizing the results of the meeting, he wrote that, overall, “What [the] Conference accomplished is that it made war more difficult.” For all its successes and failures, the U.N. has played an important role in world politics for over half a century. Schlesinger’s impressive account of its founding deserves a wide readership. Roger Bishop is a bookseller in Nashville.

In 1790, England had a new naval hero: a man who had saved the lives of more than a dozen sailors by navigating a 23-foot open boat over 4,000 miles a staggering feat of seamanship. William Bligh, late of the ship H.M.

S. Bounty, was the toast of the town. Captain Bligh? A hero? As everyone “knows” thanks to Nordhoff and Hall’s 1932 novel Mutiny on the Bounty and the various movies based on it, intrepid master’s mate Fletcher Christian launched a mutiny against the tyrannical Captain Bligh, whom he set adrift in a launch with a handful of loyalists. Christian then led his followers to an idyllic existence on a South Pacific island. But real life has an inconvenient way of diverging from legend. Readers will find the true story in Caroline Alexander’s The Bounty, a fascinating book based on court testimony, diaries and other primary sources that draws a picture very different from the popular version. Alexander, author of the equally excellent volume The Endurance, which told the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition, produces a vivid narrative with psychological depth and a keen understanding of historical context. Not that Alexander’s Bligh is a saint. He was a perfectionist with an ugly temper. But his record was far better than that of many contemporary naval officers, and he didn’t treat anyone unfairly by the standards of the time. As presented here, the mutiny wasn’t a rebellion against oppression, but a personal clash between two men under pressure who misunderstood each other’s motives. Ironically, even in Alexander’s deft hands, Christian emerges as somewhat of a mystery, in part because he died under odd circumstances not long after he brought his crew to Pitcairn Island. Anne Bartlett is a journalist who lives in South Florida.

Its owner was correct when he said the 10-story Asch Building in downtown Manhattan was fireproof. The problem was that its contents were not. Thus, the cloth and paper used on the top three floors by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company’s garment workers fed the March 25, 1911, fire that resulted in the deaths of 146 people, the worst workplace disaster in New York City’s history before that Tuesday morning in September two years ago.

Other authors have told the story of the fire but probably never as completely and carefully as David Von Drehle in Triangle: The Fire That Changed America. Von Drehle, a journalist who pored over more than 1,300 long-lost, crumbling pages of trial testimony, examines the tragedy in a wider context than ever before and produced what historians likely will regard as the first complete and most reliable list of the victims and the people who identified the remains on the pier that became a makeshift morgue.

After taking us to the congested Lower East Side, with its dingy workshops and teeming mass of new immigrants, the author brings alive rich society matrons joining poor sweatshop seamstresses to defy thugs, cops and judges intent on breaking up their strike for decent wages, tolerable hours and voting rights. Von Drehle gives us a minute-by-minute replay of the fire itself, with some victims being burned alive, others plunging fatally down an elevator shaft, and, by one reporter’s count, 54 people mostly young women leaping or falling from window ledges to their doom. Then we visit the courtroom, where the tight-fisted factory proprietors managed to beat the accusation that they knew the building’s exit doors were locked an illegal practice that allowed guards to search workers’ purses for pilfered goods. A powerful story about a pivotal event in the maturation of our nation, Triangle is a valuable addition to the literature of reform in America.

While the main events of history paint the picture of our past in broad strokes, it is often the lesser known stories that fill in the details and enrich our understanding of events. The Last Voyage of Columbus, a new book by Martin Dugard, is of the latter variety, and in it we find a figure who, while familiar, is more human and thus more interesting than the Christopher Columbus we know from history textbooks.

Columbus is, in many ways, one of the most complex and enigmatic figures in human history. While certainly a man of vision, he was also stubborn to the point of absurdity; he was a superb navigator and sailor who often had trouble with the sailors he led; he was handsome and charming, so much so that if Queen Isabella had been other than the devout Catholic she was, he could have been her lover. Dugard’s portrait of Columbus has its origins in the discovery of an ancient shipwreck at the mouth of a river in Panama. While the evidence is inconclusive, it is possible that the wreckage is that of the La Vizcaina, one of four ships Columbus took on his fourth trip to the New World. This journey was more than Columbus’ last voyage it was his last shot. While Columbus fancied himself the administrator of all the lands he discovered, in truth there was nothing he could do to stop the flood of humanity to the New World. His only chance at everlasting glory (he thought) was to find China, or at least discover a way to get there. In pursuit of that goal, Columbus endured becalmed seas, hostile natives, a horrific hurricane and eventually a devastating shipwreck before finally making his way home to die two years later.

As Dugard shows us in this remarkable book, while Columbus may have thought himself a failure, and while he remained virtually unremembered for a couple of centuries thereafter (Amerigo Vespucci was mistakenly credited with the discovery), the truth finally resurfaced. And amazingly, the wrecked ship in Panama tells us that Columbus may have come within 38 miles of seeing his goal, the Pacific Ocean.

We are in a patriotic month in a patriotic age. Our nation displays its colors, sings its songs, honors its past and argues its present. The sights and sounds of the Fourth of July all serve to remind us of our identity as a nation, but what does that identity mean? Four new books offer insight into this question.

Patriotic music is a staple of Fourth of July picnics. But where did these songs come from, and how did they become a part of our national character? Songs Sung Red, White, and Blue: The Stories Behind America’s Best-Loved Patriotic Songs (HarperResource, $14.95, 223 pages, ISBN 0060513047), by Ace Collins, explores the history of our nation’s music, from the grade school favorite “Yankee Doodle” to the modern staple “God Bless the U.S.

A.” These are the songs that have led us into battle, motivated us to change and inspired us to believe. In each chapter, Collins reveals the stories behind our favorite national tunes, delving into the lives of the songwriters and performers who made them famous. The book also offers a look at the mood and mind of the nation during the time when each song appeared and shows how the songs themselves have been changed by the nation they praise. For those with a love of music or history, or readers looking for a patriotic lift, Collins’ little book is a treat.

In the same manner, Stars ∧ Stripes Forever: The Histories, Stories, and Memories of Our American Flag (Morrow, $14.95, 192 pages, ISBN 0060523571), by Richard H. Schneider, takes a look at the history of our nation’s most beloved symbol, from the early vague description enacted by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, to the tattered icon rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Center after September 11, 2001. The book is a collection of history, observations and anecdotes about “Old Glory” (including the origin of that name), set off by moving recollections from veterans, celebrities and citizens about their experiences of the Stars and Stripes. Schneider delves into thoroughly modern controversies about the flag and patriotism, from the Pledge of Allegiance to bizarre Internet conspiracy theories. In many ways, this inspiring book is as much a history of our nation and its attitudes towards patriotism as it is a history of the flag itself.

Exploring the meaning of patriotism is at the center of Caroline Kennedy’s latest book. A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love (Hyperion, $24.95, 643 pages, ISBN 0786869186) is a compilation of opinions and art from more than two centuries of American experience. In the introduction, Kennedy calls the book her “collage of America,” and an exceptional collage it is. From George Washington’s farewell address to Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Kennedy has created a marvelous mixture of speeches, opinions, lyrics and literary works about America and her people. As great as the differences are between the voices she selects (where else will you find Ronald Reagan collected with Cesar Chavez?), there is something uniquely American in every one.

Among the unique voices of America, few are more vocal and controversial than Alan Dershowitz. Built around an examination of the words and ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, America Declares Independence is Dershowitz’s latest broadside in the continuing argument over the appropriate relationship between church and state. Using Thomas Jefferson as both touchstone and target, Dershowitz argues that the founders, many of whom were Deists, never intended for America to be an explicitly Christian nation. Readers can (and likely will) debate whether Dershowitz proves his points, but this book stands as a testament to the diversity of opinion that can exist under one flag and that may be exactly what defines our nation best. Howard Shirley is a writer in Nashville.

We are in a patriotic month in a patriotic age. Our nation displays its colors, sings its songs, honors its past and argues its present. The sights and sounds of the Fourth of July all serve to remind us of our identity as a nation, but what does that identity mean? Four new books offer insight into this question.

Patriotic music is a staple of Fourth of July picnics. But where did these songs come from, and how did they become a part of our national character? Songs Sung Red, White, and Blue: The Stories Behind America’s Best-Loved Patriotic Songs (HarperResource, $14.95, 223 pages, ISBN 0060513047), by Ace Collins, explores the history of our nation’s music, from the grade school favorite “Yankee Doodle” to the modern staple “God Bless the U.S.

A.” These are the songs that have led us into battle, motivated us to change and inspired us to believe. In each chapter, Collins reveals the stories behind our favorite national tunes, delving into the lives of the songwriters and performers who made them famous. The book also offers a look at the mood and mind of the nation during the time when each song appeared and shows how the songs themselves have been changed by the nation they praise. For those with a love of music or history, or readers looking for a patriotic lift, Collins’ little book is a treat.

In the same manner, Stars &and Stripes Forever: The Histories, Stories, and Memories of Our American Flag (Morrow, $14.95, 192 pages, ISBN 0060523571), by Richard H. Schneider, takes a look at the history of our nation’s most beloved symbol, from the early vague description enacted by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, to the tattered icon rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Center after September 11, 2001. The book is a collection of history, observations and anecdotes about “Old Glory” (including the origin of that name), set off by moving recollections from veterans, celebrities and citizens about their experiences of the Stars and Stripes. Schneider delves into thoroughly modern controversies about the flag and patriotism, from the Pledge of Allegiance to bizarre Internet conspiracy theories. In many ways, this inspiring book is as much a history of our nation and its attitudes towards patriotism as it is a history of the flag itself.

Exploring the meaning of patriotism is at the center of Caroline Kennedy’s latest book. A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love is a compilation of opinions and art from more than two centuries of American experience. In the introduction, Kennedy calls the book her “collage of America,” and an exceptional collage it is. From George Washington’s farewell address to Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Kennedy has created a marvelous mixture of speeches, opinions, lyrics and literary works about America and her people. As great as the differences are between the voices she selects (where else will you find Ronald Reagan collected with Cesar Chavez?), there is something uniquely American in every one.

Among the unique voices of America, few are more vocal and controversial than Alan Dershowitz. Built around an examination of the words and ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, America Declares Independence (Wiley, $19.95, 196 pages, ISBN 0471264822) is Dershowitz’s latest broadside in the continuing argument over the appropriate relationship between church and state. Using Thomas Jefferson as both touchstone and target, Dershowitz argues that the founders, many of whom were Deists, never intended for America to be an explicitly Christian nation. Readers can (and likely will) debate whether Dershowitz proves his points, but this book stands as a testament to the diversity of opinion that can exist under one flag and that may be exactly what defines our nation best. Howard Shirley is a writer in Nashville.

We are in a patriotic month in a patriotic age. Our nation displays its colors, sings its songs, honors its past and argues its present. The sights and sounds of the Fourth of July all serve to remind us of our identity as a nation, but what does that identity mean? Four new books offer insight into this question.

Patriotic music is a staple of Fourth of July picnics. But where did these songs come from, and how did they become a part of our national character? Songs Sung Red, White, and Blue: The Stories Behind America’s Best-Loved Patriotic Songs (HarperResource, $14.95, 223 pages, ISBN 0060513047), by Ace Collins, explores the history of our nation’s music, from the grade school favorite “Yankee Doodle” to the modern staple “God Bless the U.S.

A.” These are the songs that have led us into battle, motivated us to change and inspired us to believe. In each chapter, Collins reveals the stories behind our favorite national tunes, delving into the lives of the songwriters and performers who made them famous. The book also offers a look at the mood and mind of the nation during the time when each song appeared and shows how the songs themselves have been changed by the nation they praise. For those with a love of music or history, or readers looking for a patriotic lift, Collins’ little book is a treat.

In the same manner, Stars ∧ Stripes Forever: The Histories, Stories, and Memories of Our American Flag, by Richard H. Schneider, takes a look at the history of our nation’s most beloved symbol, from the early vague description enacted by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, to the tattered icon rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Center after September 11, 2001. The book is a collection of history, observations and anecdotes about “Old Glory” (including the origin of that name), set off by moving recollections from veterans, celebrities and citizens about their experiences of the Stars and Stripes. Schneider delves into thoroughly modern controversies about the flag and patriotism, from the Pledge of Allegiance to bizarre Internet conspiracy theories. In many ways, this inspiring book is as much a history of our nation and its attitudes towards patriotism as it is a history of the flag itself.

Exploring the meaning of patriotism is at the center of Caroline Kennedy’s latest book. A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love (Hyperion, $24.95, 643 pages, ISBN 0786869186) is a compilation of opinions and art from more than two centuries of American experience. In the introduction, Kennedy calls the book her “collage of America,” and an exceptional collage it is. From George Washington’s farewell address to Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Kennedy has created a marvelous mixture of speeches, opinions, lyrics and literary works about America and her people. As great as the differences are between the voices she selects (where else will you find Ronald Reagan collected with Cesar Chavez?), there is something uniquely American in every one.

Among the unique voices of America, few are more vocal and controversial than Alan Dershowitz. Built around an examination of the words and ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, America Declares Independence (Wiley, $19.95, 196 pages, ISBN 0471264822) is Dershowitz’s latest broadside in the continuing argument over the appropriate relationship between church and state. Using Thomas Jefferson as both touchstone and target, Dershowitz argues that the founders, many of whom were Deists, never intended for America to be an explicitly Christian nation. Readers can (and likely will) debate whether Dershowitz proves his points, but this book stands as a testament to the diversity of opinion that can exist under one flag and that may be exactly what defines our nation best. Howard Shirley is a writer in Nashville.

We are in a patriotic month in a patriotic age. Our nation displays its colors, sings its songs, honors its past and argues its present. The sights and sounds of the Fourth of July all serve to remind us of our identity as a nation, but what does that identity mean? Four new books offer insight into this question.

Patriotic music is a staple of Fourth of July picnics. But where did these songs come from, and how did they become a part of our national character? Songs Sung Red, White, and Blue: The Stories Behind America’s Best-Loved Patriotic Songs, by Ace Collins, explores the history of our nation’s music, from the grade school favorite “Yankee Doodle” to the modern staple “God Bless the U.S.

A.” These are the songs that have led us into battle, motivated us to change and inspired us to believe. In each chapter, Collins reveals the stories behind our favorite national tunes, delving into the lives of the songwriters and performers who made them famous. The book also offers a look at the mood and mind of the nation during the time when each song appeared and shows how the songs themselves have been changed by the nation they praise. For those with a love of music or history, or readers looking for a patriotic lift, Collins’ little book is a treat.

In the same manner, Stars &and Stripes Forever: The Histories, Stories, and Memories of Our American Flag (Morrow, $14.95, 192 pages, ISBN 0060523571), by Richard H. Schneider, takes a look at the history of our nation’s most beloved symbol, from the early vague description enacted by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, to the tattered icon rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Center after September 11, 2001. The book is a collection of history, observations and anecdotes about “Old Glory” (including the origin of that name), set off by moving recollections from veterans, celebrities and citizens about their experiences of the Stars and Stripes. Schneider delves into thoroughly modern controversies about the flag and patriotism, from the Pledge of Allegiance to bizarre Internet conspiracy theories. In many ways, this inspiring book is as much a history of our nation and its attitudes towards patriotism as it is a history of the flag itself.

Exploring the meaning of patriotism is at the center of Caroline Kennedy’s latest book. A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love (Hyperion, $24.95, 643 pages, ISBN 0786869186) is a compilation of opinions and art from more than two centuries of American experience. In the introduction, Kennedy calls the book her “collage of America,” and an exceptional collage it is. From George Washington’s farewell address to Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Kennedy has created a marvelous mixture of speeches, opinions, lyrics and literary works about America and her people. As great as the differences are between the voices she selects (where else will you find Ronald Reagan collected with Cesar Chavez?), there is something uniquely American in every one.

Among the unique voices of America, few are more vocal and controversial than Alan Dershowitz. Built around an examination of the words and ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, America Declares Independence (Wiley, $19.95, 196 pages, ISBN 0471264822) is Dershowitz’s latest broadside in the continuing argument over the appropriate relationship between church and state. Using Thomas Jefferson as both touchstone and target, Dershowitz argues that the founders, many of whom were Deists, never intended for America to be an explicitly Christian nation. Readers can (and likely will) debate whether Dershowitz proves his points, but this book stands as a testament to the diversity of opinion that can exist under one flag and that may be exactly what defines our nation best. Howard Shirley is a writer in Nashville.

On September 7, 1857, a wagon train of pioneers on their way to California was ambushed at a place called Mountain Meadows in southwestern Utah. At first, the attackers appeared to be Indians, but in the five days of siege that followed, it became evident that they were not. As the settlers slowly resigned themselves to being overwhelmed, a large party of white men bearing a white flag approached the embattled camp and offered the survivors safe passage if they would lay down their arms. After they had done so, the “rescuers” separated the men, women and children into groups and marched them along the trail. Then, in response to a pre-arranged command, the supposed protectors turned on the settlers and shot them point-blank or slit their throats. Within three minutes, 140 people lay dead. Only about 15 or 20 children, whom the attackers deemed too young to bear witness against them, were spared. The killers were Mormons.

The Mountain Meadows massacre remains one of the most nettlesome events in the Mormon Church’s bloody history. Was the slaughter ordered by the church’s leader, Brigham Young, or was it the misguided action of his overzealous adherents? Award-winning journalist Sally Denton leaves little doubt that it was the former.

Instead of treating the incident as an aberration, in her compelling new book American Massacre, she places it in the context of a religious movement that owed much of its success to cultivating an us-against-them attitude among its members. The perception that any outsider might be an enemy of the faith made an atrocity like Mountain Meadows inevitable. Particularly effective in demonstrating how the national outcry against the massacre kept building until even the intractable Young had to give in to it, Denton has written a fascinating and thorough account of the tumultuous event and its aftermath. This is a superb piece of scholarship that reads like a novel.