The Annals of Iowa

Review of: The Archaeological Guide to Iowa, by William E. Whittaker, Lynn M. Alex, and Mary C. de la Garz

Betts, Colin

Book Reviews and Notices 
The Archaeological Guide to Iowa, by William E. Whittaker, Lynn M. Alex, 
and Mary C. de la Garza. Iowa and the Midwest Experience Series. 
Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2015. xv, 271 pp. Maps, illustrations, 
bibliographical suggestions, index. $29.95 paperback. 
Reviewer Colin Betts is professor of anthropology at Luther College. His work 
focuses on the topics of archaeology, ceramics, and ethnoarchaeology. 
The Archaeological Guide to Iowa is fundamentally intended to provide 
an overview of Iowa’s archaeological heritage “for those that want to 
experience archaeological places firsthand” (1). Underlying this goal is 
the premise that Iowa’s archaeological heritage is best appreciated first-
hand. In pursuit of that general goal, the authors have selected a sample 
of 68 archaeological sites located throughout the state that provide 
readers with the opportunity to visit locales associated with the various 
periods in Iowa’s prehistoric and historic past. These sites include 
“must-see” examples of Iowa’s rich cultural legacy as well as others 
whose value lies less in their aesthetic appeal than in their ability to 
elucidate broader trends in Iowa’s past.  
 The introductory chapter outlines the structure and purpose of the 
book and provides a basic summary of the fundamental temporal pe-
riods of Iowa’s cultural legacy. The remainder of the book consists 
of individual summaries that specify the sites’ cultural and temporal 
contexts and situate them within the larger issues associated with the 
history and practice of archaeology in Iowa. The sites are organized 
according to the major river systems along which they are located, 
proceeding west to east and following the general flow of rivers from 
north to south. Within each drainage system the sites are presented 
chronologically. Each section concludes with details on how to visit 
the site or related locales as well as a short bibliography for further 
reading. It is not possible to visit all of the sites in the book because 
some have been destroyed or are located on private property or their 
locations have been kept confidential to prevent damage or looting. In 
those cases directions are provided to geographically comparable loca-
tions or to facilities where it is possible to view the materials recovered 
from those sites. 
164 
Book Reviews and Notices      165 
 The Archaeological Guide to Iowa provides a concise overview of 
Iowa’s past and facilitates visits to the places where the vestiges of that 
past can be experienced directly. The authors effectively achieve their 
stated goal of emphasizing the importance of archaeology as a study 
of landscapes and locations of human activity as much as it is of objects 
and artifacts. By encouraging firsthand appreciation for these locales, 
they provide a rich sense of the complex palimpsest of the human 
experience in the state. As such, the book serves admirably as a stand-
alone introduction to the archaeology of Iowa or as a companion to 
Lynn Alex’s comprehensive Iowa’s Archeological Past (2000).  
 The structure of the book works well for the sites associated with 
Native American occupations. As the authors note, river valleys rep-
resented primary modes of transportation for indigenous groups. This 
structure also facilitates the exploration of developmental trends with-
in culturally similar regions. The organization is a little less effective 
with respect to the historic Euro-American sites included in the book, 
however. Nonetheless, the book’s extensive cross-referencing provides 
ample opportunities to draw connections among the sites and to high-
light the larger issues that cross-cut Iowa’s prehistoric and historic 
past—both in terms of what happened and of our efforts to under-
stand and preserve that heritage.  
 The sites that the book covers were selected as much for their value 
for providing a representative cross-section of Iowa’s archaeological 
heritage as for their ability to illuminate broader issues associated with 
the presentation, preservation, and conduct of archaeology. These issues 
span the gamut from the rise and fall of the Moundbuilder myth to the 
development of cultural resource management and the changing rela-
tionships between archaeologists and descendant communities. Some 
readers may be disappointed that it is not possible to visit many of the 
sites included in the book and may question their inclusion in the 
guide. However, their inclusion is invaluable: the reasons behind their 
inaccessibility serve to highlight the challenges involved in the stew-
ardship of historical and archaeological heritage. Those challenges are 
not specific to the state and touch on elements common to historic 
preservation in general. In this vein, the final site presented in the book, 
Fort Madison, represents a fitting epilogue for highlighting the value of 
archaeology for understanding the prehistoric and historic past as well 
as the ongoing threats to the physical locales associated with Iowa’s 
cultural heritage and the challenges associated with their preservation.  


English

The Archaeological Guide to Iowa

Review of: "Booming from the Mists of Nowhere: The Story of the Greater Prairie-Chicken," by Greg Hoch

Pritchard, James A.

428 
Book Reviews and Notices 
Booming from the Mists of Nowhere: The Story of the Greater Prairie-Chicken, 
by Greg Hoch. A Bur Oak Book. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 
2015. xiii, 126 pp. Maps, graphs, bibliography, index. $19.95 paperback.  
Reviewer James A. Pritchard is adjunct associate professor of environmental 
history and natural resource policy at Iowa State University. He is a coauthor 
of A Green and Permanent Land (2001). 
This wonderful book is at once enlightening and hopeful, a welcome 
outlook amidst the challenges of wildlife conservation today. Readers 
interested in the history of Iowa or wildlife in the Midwest will find 
Booming from the Mists of Nowhere provocative in its consideration of his-
torical landscape change, and intriguing as it brings diverse historical 
voices into the conversation.  
 Hoch traces pinnated grouse (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus and re-
lated species) populations through time in North America, describing 
interactions among people, land, and wildlife on scales from a few acres 
to the entire Great Plains. Euro-American farmers settling the prairies 
reported astounding numbers of prairie-chickens. In fact, these partic-
ular birds followed the plow, increasing in numbers and shifting their 
range, reaching a high point when the mix of crop fields and prairie was 
about half and half.  
 The author gracefully points toward fundamental truths, including 
“grassland wildlife needs grass” (think habitat), and insightfully de-
scribes the underlying complexity of grassland ecosystems. Indeed, 
prairie-chickens are “complex creatures living in very dynamic land-
scapes” (106). Readers will readily grasp Hoch’s concise and imagina-
tive explanations, for example, how a human flu season is similar to the 
workings of disease and parasites in bird populations. Along the path 
to understanding the relationship between structural diversity of vege-
tation and chick survival rates, readers are invited to consider life from 
an animal’s viewpoint, in this case imagining a predator looking for 
bird nests amidst the various prairie forbs and grasses. 
 Hoch’s account embraces the latest practice and science, including 
“patch-burn grazing” techniques currently employed in southern Iowa, 
busily investigated by graduate students counting the variety of insects 
and birds. Interestingly, it’s not the choice of cows or bison but rather 
the management of grazing animals that matters in restoring field and 
Book Reviews and Notices      429 
prairie to vibrant condition. The author’s discussions of habitat frag-
mentation—how birds use various prairie types, and how habitat avail-
ability can shape the genetic diversity of prairie-chicken subpopulations 
—is compelling because it links the prairie’s past to its future. Small 
populations of birds use remaining prairie patches scattered over the 
landscape, exchanging (one hopes) heritable traits as part of a larger 
metapopulation.  
 Undeniably, prairie-chickens are “birds of working lands” (100). 
Midwestern farmers used to foster six or more crops, but simplifying 
the landscape negatively affected bird populations. Although the prairie 
ecosystem has been driven to functional extinction, the author argues 
that “there is room on the prairie landscape for many species of grass-
land birds,” given better habitat management and enough grass (10). 
Conservation can work successfully with grazing and haying at the 
township level, while patches of 320 acres scattered over the larger land-
scape (along with some larger core areas) would encourage various 
grassland birds. Government agencies, non-profit organizations, and cit-
izens all have roles to play, but ultimately the “true fate of all these species 
lies in the hands of farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners” (107).  
 Hoch is not only a competent biologist but also a thorough researcher 
and a worthy author as well, drawing readers into a fascinating world 
of birds, biology, and history. Successfully integrating passages from 
historical accounts and natural history, the narrative provides reflective 
moments and additional insight into human interactions with wildlife. 
This account is a thoughtful and well-executed blend of wildlife science, 
history, and poetic thought.  
 Readers should accept Hoch’s invitation to see for themselves the 
prairie-chickens during their courting season on the lek, when the males 
call with haunting voices and show off their colorful feathers while the 
females choose mates, shaping evolution. It is an experience promising 
inspiration, uplift, and a sense of renewal in witnessing prairie-chickens 
“booming from the mists of nowhere” (108).  
 
 
The Settlers’ Empire: Colonialism and State Formation in America’s Old North-
west, by Bethel Saler. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 
2015. iv, 382 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, index. $45.00 hardcover. 
Reviewer Catherine J. Denial is the Bright Professor of American History at Knox 
College in Illinois. She is the author of Making Marriage: Husbands, Wives, and the 
American State in Dakota and Ojibwe Country (2013). 
In The Settlers’ Empire, Bethel Saler sets out to counter the widely held 
belief of many historians that there was no nation-state in place in the 


Booming from the Mists of Nowhere: The Story of the Greater Prairie-Chicken

Review of: "Constructing a Legacy: The Weitz Company and the Family Who Built It," by William B. Friedrick

Silag, Bill

446      THE ANNALS OF IOWA 
of profiles covers three prominent figures associated with entertain-
ment and communications: Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los An-
geles Times, early filmmaker Carl Laemmle, and the ultimate entertainer, 
William F. Cody.  
 It is easy to see that Anschutz admires his subjects; although he 
notes foibles and mistakes, their accomplishments are his focus. He 
praises John Evans, appointed Colorado Territory’s governor in 1862, 
for his efforts in developing Denver and the region, but he sidesteps the 
governor’s complicity in the Sand Creek Massacre. 
 This book is easy to criticize: Anschutz’s view of history can be as 
simplistic as it is insightful; his choices can be questioned (why Samuel 
Colt and not Oliver Winchester?); his sources need updating; there is 
some sloppy editing in the bibliographies; and he is prone to overstate-
ment. But it is a handsome book with sturdy pages and colorful art, and 
it contains more than one gem in his list of favorites. For readers inter-
ested in American entrepreneurs, Anschutz provides a starting point; 
despite its drawbacks, the book is worth having on the shelf. 
 
 
Constructing a Legacy: The Weitz Company and the Family Who Built It, by 
William B. Friedricks. Des Moines: Business Publications Corp., 2015. 
xviii, 311 pp. Illustrations, note on sources, notes, index. $20.00 paperback. 
Reviewer Bill Silag, a former editor of the Palimpsest, is working on a biography 
of Iowa author Ruth Suckow. 
Charles Weitz was 30 years old in 1855 when he and his wife arrived in 
Des Moines, the newly designated state capital. Charles found work as 
a carpenter and soon opened his own shop. Business was spotty at first 
—rail service to Des Moines was still years away—but Weitz believed 
in Des Moines’s metropolitan future, so he kept up with his modest 
trade, started a family, and got to know the local landscape. The arrival 
of the railroads in the late 1860s sparked a long-awaited economic boom 
that continued mostly without interruption until the 1890s. Charles 
Weitz was in the middle of much of that urban development, as were 
his grown sons, including Frederick Wilhelm, born in 1867, who would 
succeed his father as CEO of the family’s construction business in 1903. 
 Author William Friedricks explains the firm’s longevity in terms of 
family character: “The Weitz family itself was a key reason for the 
company’s success,” he contends. “Beginning with Charles, the [Weitz] 
clan created a strong familial stake in the company, and then, over the 
generations, identified and developed family members with a passion 
and talent for running the firm” ( xi–xii). 
Book Reviews and Notices      447 
 Much of the book’s text focuses on the Weitz Company’s ongoing 
efforts to develop new markets and new relationships with various 
government agencies. But especially interesting are the author’s discuss-
ions regarding succession at the executive level. As a child in Germany 
in the 1830s, Charles Weitz apparently understood from an early age 
that his birth family’s weaving business was not large enough to ensure 
employment for every family member—several of Charles’s siblings 
were already at work in the family business—and likely he would be 
on his own when the time came to earn a living. Decades later, as a 
successful business owner in Des Moines, Charles decided to do better 
by his own heirs. He had come to see each family member as a stake-
holder in the primary mission of the family—the economic survival of 
the Weitz family itself. The building company would be his legacy to 
future Weitz generations, secured by the continuing financial success of 
the family enterprise. 
 Charles’s son, Frederick Wilhelm, began to take charge of the day-
to-day administration of the company in the 1880s, adhering to a long-
term business plan devised under his father’s direction. The plan em-
phasized construction of large commercial structures, such as grain 
storage bins and office buildings, along with the local post-office 
construction projects Weitz had been doing for years within and in-
creasingly beyond Iowa’s borders. By the turn of the twentieth century, 
government contracts had become a major source of Weitz company 
income.  
 Each of the Weitz men who served as CEO of the company had his 
own goals, but presumably a major element of the succession process 
had to do with achieving a family consensus regarding the aspiring 
CEO’s goals moving forward. For Frederick Wilhelm Weitz (CEO 1906–
1935), the emphasis was on winning contracts for government build-
ings; Rudolph (Rudy) Weitz (CEO 1935–1974) was associated with FHA-
financed apartment complexes. But Rudy’s son, Frederick William (Fred) 
Weitz (CEO 1974–1995), who found his niche in the construction and 
management of retirement communities, had other changes in mind as 
well; he proposed selling shares in the Weitz Company to company em-
ployees in a process that would eventually lead to complete employee 
ownership. The Weitz family accepted Fred’s proposal, the work of re-
structuring the company commenced, and beginning in 1995 the Weitz 
Company was employee–owned and operated. 
 The new firm had two divisions, one for the construction and man-
agement of continuing-care retirement communities, the other for gen-
eral construction. In the new firm’s first decade, both divisions did well, 
but in its second decade the general construction division—the core of 
448      THE ANNALS OF IOWA 
the original Weitz Company —began to have trouble, “dragged down 
by the deep recession that began in 2007” (xviii). Finally, in 2012, the 
general construction division of the Weitz Company was sold to a 
multinational corporation based in Egypt. The retirement community 
division of the company continues to thrive. 
 Friedricks writes in a style that is informative and reader-friendly. 
His sources include interviews with Weitz officials and family mem-
bers, company documents, and construction industry publications. 
Dozens of black-and-white photos document some of the Weitz com-
pany’s project outcomes and their impact on Des Moines’s built en-
vironment, as well as the range of its domestic and international activity. 
Overall, Constructing a Legacy is an excellent company history, focusing 
on a fascinating family story that will appeal to specialists and general 
readers alike. 
 
 
Still Turning: A History of Aeromotor Windmills, by Christopher C. Gillis. 
Tarleton State University Southwestern Studies in the Humanities Series. 
College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2015. xviii, 274 pp. Illustra-
tions, appendix, notes, glossary, bibliography, index. $35.00 hardcover.  
Reviewer Derek Oden is associate professor of history at Del Mar College in 
Corpus Christi, Texas. He is the author of “Perils of Production: Farm Hazards, 
Family Farming, and the Mechanization of the Corn Belt, 1940–1980” (Annals of 
Iowa, 2014). 
Christopher Gillis’s interest in windmills reaches back decades, and his 
vast knowledge is clearly evident throughout his outstanding book, 
Still Turning, which tells the story of Aeromotor, one of the industry’s 
best-known names. Those looking for an expansive treatment of the 
many dimensions of windmill technology might find the book unsatis-
fying. However, readers will discover that Still Turning is meticulously 
researched and an exceedingly worthwhile company history. 
 Gillis begins by discussing the inventive ways people employed 
windmills to drain wetlands, obtain salt, and pump ground water. Such 
efforts eventually led to developing “water-pumping windmills” that 
were “relatively easy to erect, durable, and able to run with minimal 
maintenance” (16). He then examines the company’s origins in the late 
1880s and its rise as a major windmill manufacturer. He also chronicles 
the many challenges company leaders overcame throughout the corpo-
ration’s history. Today, Aeromotor is the only surviving U.S.-based com-
pany that manufactures a “mechanical water-pumping windmill” (196). 
In 1919, however, there were 31 such companies (101). Gillis’s work fully 
explains the many factors that led to the industry’s present state. 


Constructing a Legacy: The Weitz Company and the Family Who Built It

Review of: "Remember Me to Miss Louisa: Hidden Black-White Intimacies in Antebellum America," by Sharony Gree

Bigham, Darrel E.

Book Reviews and Notices      435 
River’s story illuminates so many other stories central to the region’s 
and nation’s history. Many scholars of the Mississippi treat the river as 
important in and of itself, a sui generis geographical and historical phe-
nomenon that is important simply because of its size and centrality to 
the continent. Of course, that is true; it would be hard to imagine a his-
tory or geography of the region that did not take the Mississippi funda-
mentally into account. Stepenoff’s “smaller” stories, which originate 
from a particular place or a particular type of work, make very clear 
how much the river and its corridor of influence have to say to histori-
ans of such seemingly disparate subjects as race, class, labor, or gender. 
Her work provides material for scholars and others interested in how 
communities work, whether local influences trump national patterns, 
or how much influence individuals have on particular events, as op-
posed to the context of their place and time. 
 Ultimately, that is perhaps the greatest value of Stepenoff’s book: 
she invites readers to look more closely at subjects they may have a 
passing familiarity with, and, by doing so, to see connections to ideas 
and things that they had not thought of as associated with the Missis-
sippi River at all. Hers is not at all the “last word” on the Mississippi 
River, but rather the first word on a host of subjects that are touched by 
the river. 
 
 
Remember Me to Miss Louisa: Hidden Black-White Intimacies in Antebellum 
America, by Sharony Green. Early American Places. DeKalb: Northern 
Illinois University Press, 2015. xvii, 199 pp. Illustrations, chart, notes, 
bibliography, index. $24.95 paperback. 
Reviewer Darrel E. Bigham is emeritus professor of history and director of 
Historic Southern Indiana, University of Southern Indiana. He is the author of 
On Jordan’s Banks: Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley (2005). 
The title of this brief work suggests the need to explore the little-known 
bonds of affection between slaves or freedpeople and their current or 
former white owners. The locus is Cincinnati, the midwestern border 
city with the largest number of African Americans in the antebellum 
period, where many unmarried mothers settled with their children born 
of unions with white masters. Many of these were “fancy,” attractive, 
fair-skinned women whose children were deemed, in the language of 
the day, “mulatto,” often able to “pass” as whites. 
 Green wants us to examine not only the well-known matrifocal 
trend in black families but also the role of white males in the equation. 
She asserts, “The historical record shows that there was often reciprocal 
regard, warmth, and even caring in settings where whites and blacks 
436      THE ANNALS OF IOWA 
became trading partners, shipmates, servants, allies, or lovers” (9). 
Often—as in the case of Ava White and her former owner, Rice Ballard 
—they and their children were freed and settled in the Queen City, 
miles distant from owners’ white families. Not all white men were ex-
ploitative or consistent in their relations with their female slaves. What 
former enslaved people did to secure their freedom and support was 
less important “than what white men permitted of themselves” (9). How 
black women and their children felt about that was probably shaped by 
the way they understood male-female and parent-child relations as well 
as master-slave relations.  
 Such interracial unions, although stigmatized over time, often led 
southern white men to invest emotionally and financially in the lives of 
enslaved women and children. This thesis is supported by detailed ex-
amination of the black families of three white planters—Samuel Town-
send, Rice Ballard, and John Williams. All three families would settle in 
Cincinnati. Their prosperity depended not only on their actions but also 
on their head start as freedpeople, the locus of their settlement, the atti-
tudes of the community, and luck. 
 This study is organized into four chapters and an epilogue. Chapter 
one surveys the “hidden life” of the planter. The second and third 
explore, in turn, the perspectives of white wives and “favored” black 
women. The last examines the world of the progenies, before and after 
the Civil War. In the epilogue the author stresses that historical study 
has paid too much attention to racial oppression and not enough to the 
intimacies created between white owners and black women, especially 
those who were fair-skinned. Those women “emerged as both victors 
and victims, immoral and upright, enslaved and indeed free with white 
men’s help” (132). It is easier to describe relations as rape and more dif-
ficult “to say it was love or something approaching that” (132). 
 The author has provided a provocative and well-researched inves-
tigation of a topic that needs much more attention by students of Amer-
ican history. The traditional view of racial exploitation of black women 
by white slaveowners certainly is simplistic, but whether her examina-
tion of just three case studies in one city suffices to redress the balance 
remains to be seen. The book’s audience is narrowly academic, as dem-
onstrated by the absence of a narrative approach and the unfortunate 
tendency to rely on abstract jargon. Too often speculative words like 
may, probably, possibly, suggests, and evidently (see pp. 24–25, for instance) 
weaken her arguments. Context—time and space—seem lacking. But 
this is a stimulating work that should encourage examination of how 
and why mixed-race families came to settle in other midwestern cities.  
 
Book Reviews and Notices      437 
Lincoln, the Law, and Presidential Leadership, edited by Charles M. Hub-
bard. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2015. x, 214 pp. 
Illustrations, notes, index. $34.50 hardcover and e-book. 
Reviewer Timothy Walch is director emeritus of the Herbert Hoover Presiden-
tial Library and a volunteer at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Iowa City. 
Yet another book about Abraham Lincoln is not always a welcome event. 
Indeed, it is often said that no historical figure other than Jesus Christ has 
generated as many books as the sixteenth president of the United States. 
Can it be that scholars have anything more to say about this man? 
 As surprising as it might be, we have not yet exhausted the topic. 
Thanks to Charles M. Hubbard, Lincoln Historian at Lincoln Memorial 
University, we have a fresh collection of essays on various aspects of 
Lincoln’s application of constitutional law. Together, these nine chapters 
fit together neatly to remind us of the intricate nature of Lincoln’s views 
on the law. 
 As can be surmised from the title, this is not a book for the average 
history buff. Although all of the essays are well written, the subject matter 
is specialized. To benefit from this volume, readers should have an in-
terest in how Lincoln applied his personal commitment to the law and 
his understanding of the Constitution to presidential decision making. 
 Given that caveat, the book offers a range of perspectives from a 
diverse collection of experienced Lincoln scholars. The list of topics 
is impressive: civil liberties, presidential pardons, executive decision 
making, political ideology, the responsibilities of citizenship, constitu-
tional restraints, the loyalty of government employees, and much more. 
 Almost in the manner of a jazz ensemble, each contributor steps 
forward to play a solo. Daniel Stowell focuses on the connection be-
tween the law and decision making. Mark Steiner follows on immigra-
tion and citizenship. Then comes Charles Hubbard on slavery and na-
tional unity and Frank Williams on civil liberties during wartime. Edna 
Greene Medford evaluates Lincoln’s paradoxical path to emancipation. 
She is succeeded by Ron Soodalter, who writes about Lincoln’s sense of 
mercy and social justice. The last three chapters are by Bruce Carnahan 
(military practices toward civilians), Natalie Sweet (loyalty and treason) 
and Jason R. Jividen (Lincoln’s impact on his successors). 
 Even though there is much to admire in these essays, there is pre-
cious little on Iowa or the Midwest. Iowa is not mentioned at all, and 
only Mark Steiner’s essay on Lincoln and citizenship includes brief pas-
sages (pp. 7–18 and 36–42) on Lincoln’s life and work in Illinois. Does it 
matter that this book doesn’t have much to say about Lincoln’s ties to 
the Midwest? Perhaps not. If it’s true that Lincoln belongs to the ages, 
it also must be said that he belongs to all the states.  


Remember Me to Miss Louisa: Hidden Black-White Intimacies in Antebellum America

Review of: "This Is Not Dixie: Racist Violence in Kansas, 1861–1927," by Brent M. S. Campne

Oertel, Kristen Tegtmeier

Book Reviews and Notices      441 
Brown’s family, as Horatio Rust did. That is the captivating focus of 
William Deverell’s “After Antietam.” With a distractingly breezy style, 
Virginia Scharff considers how a Scottish-born Mormon immigrant and 
the highly contested Wyoming Territory both became American after 
the Civil War. And, in a fitting conclusion to the collection, Jennifer 
Denetdale’s “You Brought History Alive for Us” reflects on the histori-
cal impact of colonialism in silencing the lives and recasting the identi-
ties of nineteenth-century Navajo women. Of particular interest is the 
author’s description of the process of recovering stories about their 
community leadership. 
 Empire and Liberty is a suggestive volume that only hints at the re-
gional complexity of the American West. Yet we also see the region’s 
many connections to the nation as a whole. As a result, the Civil War 
and Reconstruction era offers a compelling circumstance to rethink the 
traditional boundaries of the period’s historiography. 
 
 
This Is Not Dixie: Racist Violence in Kansas, 1861–1927, by Brent M. S. 
Campney. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. x, 281 pp. Maps, 
appendixes, notes, bibliography, index. $50.00 hardcover. 
Reviewer Kristen Tegtmeier Oertel is Mary Frances Barnard Professor in Nine-
teenth-Century American History at the University of Tulsa. She is the author of 
Bleeding Borders: Gender, Race and Violence in Pre–Civil War Kansas (2008). 
Most northerners pride themselves for standing on the “right” side of 
history when it comes to racism in the nineteenth century; they point to 
their distant relatives who fought in the Union army or the lack of de 
jure school segregation in their states as proof that their communities 
frowned upon the kind of systemic racism that plagued the Deep South 
after the Civil War. Kansans, in particular, laud their Free State past and 
lift up mythical figures like John Brown to privilege a narrative that 
claims Kansas as a racial utopia, the “Land of Canaan” where African 
Americans settled after fleeing racial violence in the South. With Brent 
Campney’s ironically titled This Is Not Dixie, no Kansan, indeed no mid-
westerner, will ever be able to discount the unfortunate likelihood that 
racial violence has characterized the black experience throughout the 
country. In fact, Campney argues, “Racism was indisputably ‘an inher-
ent part of the state’s ideological and political founding,’” and he claims 
that white Kansans “utilized racist violence and other means to estab-
lish a legacy of white supremacy that cast a long shadow” on the state’s 
history (212, 213). 
 Campney uses a “capacious model of racist violence” that includes 
“sensational violence” like lynching and riots but also considers “threat- 
442      THE ANNALS OF IOWA 
ened violence,” when lynch mobs pursued their subject but never suc-
ceeded, and “routine violence” like assault, property damage, and rape 
(1–6).  Campney combed through hundreds of newspapers from the era, 
and what he found is disturbing: between 1861 and 1927, 52 African 
Americans were lynched by whites in Kansas, and at least 17 more were 
killed by police; between roughly 1890 and 1913, whites planned and 
threatened 78 lynchings; and almost 30 race riots peppered the state’s 
history and occurred almost everywhere blacks lived, from tiny towns 
like Larned to larger cities like Leavenworth (202–4). 
 Perhaps the most devastating evidence Campney provides comes 
from the gory details of some of those lynchings, like the 1901 “Leaven-
worth burning.” Fred Alexander had been arrested for assaulting a 
white woman, but before he could be tried for the alleged crime, a mob 
broke into the local jail and tied him to a stake, covering him in coal oil 
and lighting him on fire. According to the New York Times, “Probably 
8,000 people witnessed the burning,” after which “there was a wild 
scramble to obtain relics. Bits of charred flesh, pieces of chain, scraps of 
wood—everything that could possibly serve as a souvenir—was seized” 
(90). Like the photography exhibit and website Without Sanctuary, which 
features chilling photographs of white crowds who attended lynchings 
as spectacle and entertainment, Campney’s study reminds modern 
readers that racial violence infused American culture. 
 Yet Campney also provides inspiring examples of African American 
resistance to such violence, most impressively in the form of jailhouse 
defenses. For the period between 1890 and 1916, Campney found 22 
instances of armed black men standing guard at local and county jails 
protecting black suspects, in addition to blacks ignoring white orders to 
disperse, black families hiding accused offenders, and blacks refusing 
to reveal information to white authorities (204). Such sustained resistance 
demonstrates that “blacks fought an unbroken struggle for their rights 
throughout the study period, and they did so vigorously and coura-
geously despite daunting odds” (205). 
 For all of its strengths, Campney’s study overlooks some important 
scholarly precedents. Previous scholarship firmly establishes the foun-
dation of racism in Kansas Territory and includes whites’ racist beliefs 
about Native Americans in that development, a piece of the historical 
puzzle that Campney ignores. During his study period, Indians were 
forcefully removed from their homes in Kansas to other locations in the 
state and to Indian Territory. Whites certainly did not reserve their 
racial venom for blacks, and one wonders how capacious Campney’s 
model of racial violence is when it does not include Indians and also 
Latinos, who were populating the Santa Fe Trail (and railroad) in the 
Book Reviews and Notices      443 
late nineteenth century and working at Kansas City’s packinghouses in 
the early twentieth century. Despite these oversights, Campney’s book 
is an important corrective to the still prevailing belief that racial vio-
lence was a uniquely southern problem. 
 
 
Red Cloud: Oglala Legend, by John D. McDermott. South Dakota Bi-
ography Series. Pierre: South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2015. xv, 
194 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $14.95 paperback. 
Reviewer Denny Smith is associate professor of history and director of Native 
American Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His research and 
writing have focused on Plains Indians. 
With three major scholarly biographies of Oglala Lakota war and civil 
chief Red Cloud already published by 1997, the South Dakota Historical 
Society Press nonetheless has wisely selected Red Cloud as the fourth 
person in their state biography series. Equally thoughtfully they invited 
distinguished frontier and “Indian wars” historian John D. McDermott 
to write it. 
 Red Cloud was a towering figure as war chief, but after 1868, when 
he dedicated himself to reservation life, he became a polarizing tribal 
leader, both within Lakota circles and in Lakota–federal Indian policy 
affairs. McDermott safely navigates these turbulent waters to focus 
mainly on Red Cloud’s story. 
 In the first two chapters on Red Cloud’s early years, McDermott 
presents unique insights. Using interviews with Red Cloud late in his 
life by historians Doane Robinson and R. Eli Paul, McDermott presents 
rare details such as Red Cloud’s extensive war honors and his special 
affinity with horses. 
 In chapters 4–6 McDermott recounts the well-known 1865–1868 
Lakota–U.S. Army wars in the Powder River region. He knows this 
story well, having written two fine studies on this period: Circle of Fire 
(2003) and Red Cloud’s War (2010). 
 Red Cloud’s formative years at the newly established Red Cloud 
Agencies were based primarily in neighboring Nebraska. After forcing 
the U.S. Army to abandon Forts Reno, Phil Kearny, and C. F. Smith in 
the summer of 1868, Red Cloud traveled to Fort Laramie and signed the 
1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.  
 In chapters 7–9 McDermott addresses the turbulent 1869–1877 years 
as Red Cloud battled the Indian Affairs Office over the negligent treat-
ment of Oglalas at two different Red Cloud Agencies. The author em-
phasizes that these agencies were in fact situated in western Nebraska. 
Red Cloud refused to relocate to the Great Sioux Reservation (in present 


This Is Not Dixie: Racist Violence in Kansas, 1861-1927

Back Matter, The Annals of Iowa, v. 75 no. 2 Spring 2016

Review of: Brigham Young: Sovereign in America, by David Vaughn Maso

Bennett, Richard E.

166      THE ANNALS OF IOWA 
Brigham Young: Sovereign in America, by David Vaughn Mason. Rout-
ledge Historical Americans Series. New York and London: Routledge, 
2015. xiii, 184 pp. Timeline, notes, documents, bibliography, index. 
$155.00 hardcover, $34.95 paperback. 
Reviewer Richard E. Bennett is head of the Department of Church History and 
Doctrine at Brigham Young University. He is the author of Mormons at the 
Missouri, 1846–1852 (1987). 
Colorfully written, fast-paced, and boldly assertive, David V. Mason’s 
Brigham Young: Sovereign in America, is a brief, highly critical, tightly 
drawn biography of one of America’s most dominant religious per-
sonalities. Although only seven chapters long, the book covers well 
Young’s early life and conversion to Mormonism in 1832; his abiding 
loyalty to Joseph Smith Jr., the founder of the Latter-day Saint move-
ment; his leadership of the Mormon exodus across Iowa in 1846 and 
then to the Rocky Mountains in 1847; his successful colonization of the 
inter-mountain West; and his ardent determination to eliminate poverty 
and inequality among the Latter-day Saints. Mason is also conversant 
with much of the current secondary literature on such debatable topics 
as the “principle” or practice of plural marriage, the handcart disasters 
of 1856, the Utah War of 1857, the Mountain Meadows Massacre of the 
same year, and the place of temple ordinances among the Saints. Un-
like some other earlier critical biographies, Mason’s work does not give 
in to an overly critical, highly simplistic portrayal of Brigham Young 
as a lecherous, immoral scoundrel driven by vengeance and violence, 
essentially a liar and a religious renegade.  
 Nevertheless, his thesis is clear and consistent as stated on the first 
page: Brigham Young was “the treasonous reprobate and scourge of 
American democracy” (1); he was authoritarian by nature and disposi-
tion; and, because of the trials he faced during Missouri’s persecution 
of the Mormons, he became a law unto himself, an untrammeled “sov-
ereign” and “a king endowed by God” (81). One senses from the get-go 
that Young is in for a rough ride. 
 Its strengths notwithstanding, the fundamental weakness of the book 
is its lack of original research. Young is a highly complex figure who 
demands much more comprehensive treatment than the publisher and 
author were willing to give. Leonard J. Arrington and John G. Turner 
both found that out in their massive, contrasting biographies of the man. 
Young’s available papers run into the hundreds of thousands of items, 
an archival avalanche, few of which are used here. Sorely missing are 
more of Young’s own voice and writings, as well as the comments of 
his contemporaries and colleagues. The sad result is that Mason relies 
heavily on very negative interpretations of the man. He tries hard to 
Book Reviews and Notices      167 
make Young into another James Strang, the “King of Beaver Island,” 
an egotistical, unfettered dictator and selfish demagogue to be defined 
more by his rhetoric and his critics than by the archival records. It is, 
therefore, a one-dimensional, simplistic, and imbalanced portrayal of a 
highly complex individual.  
 This lack of primary materials leads Mason to make several asser-
tions that do not correspond to the archival reality, only three of which 
can be discussed here. First, he calls the Mormons’ trek across Iowa in 
1846, their tortuous stay at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and their sub-
sequent exodus to the Rocky Mountains in 1847 “a perfect dream to 
Brigham Young,” his “playground,” a “new wide-open liberty” and 
“joyful” endeavor (70), and argues that this undertaking, essentially a 
selfish enterprise, was “for the sake of all, himself” (62). The reality 
was that Young found himself at the head of a despised and persecuted 
religion, that he had not sought his senior position as a member of the 
Twelve Apostles, that Sidney Rigdon, James Strang, and others had 
disgraced and disqualified themselves in the eyes of their followers, 
and that 10,000 Latter-day Saints had to either abandon Nauvoo or be 
destroyed in an open civil war. It was hardly an “adventure” of his 
own seeking, and to call it all a selfish exercise when thousands were 
crowding around him for deliverance grotesquely misses the mark. At 
least one thousand Mormons died in the Iowa and Nebraska wilder-
ness in 1846 and 1847, but under Young’s leadership, only a small per-
centage of his followers either quit or rebelled. He may have had an 
imperious nature and authoritarian bearing, but he loved and served 
his people and they ever honored him because of it. 
 Second, Mason is correct in saying that Mormonism “almost from 
the beginning was not merely a Christian church but a temple religion” 
(45), but to argue that Young made use of the temple “to secure his au-
thority over the community” (60) misrepresents the situation. The truth 
is that the Saints begged for temple ordinances and looked to Young as 
their apostolic leader to authorize them. It was their faith and demands, 
not Young’s machinations, that led him and his fellow apostles to per-
form over 12,000 baptisms for the dead, 5,500 living endowments, and 
hundreds of temple marriages, or “sealings,” in Nauvoo. It was their 
demands, not his calculations, that led him to postpone the exodus long 
enough to offer such blessings to his people. The record shows that this 
was a people who were “wont” to be led as much as Young wanted to 
lead them. Their voices of appreciation are missing in the narrative. 
 Finally, the author argues that Young’s succession to the presidency 
in Kanesville, Iowa, in December 1847 was a power grab and evidence 
of his becoming a monarch among his people. If so, his people failed 
168      THE ANNALS OF IOWA 
to see it in that light. It surely wasn’t his fault that in 1835 he had been 
appointed a member of the Twelve, that he had led a most successful 
apostolic mission to Great Britain from 1838 to 1841, and that he was 
by 1847 in the most senior position to succeed Joseph Smith as presi-
dent. Running the church by committee or by quorum when their own 
revelations made clear that the Twelve were to go into all the world 
was hardly a defensible proposition. And Orson Pratt knew it. While 
Mason is correct in showing that Young and Pratt were often at odds 
theologically and in terms of personality, it is significant that it was 
Pratt who presented Young’s name for a sustaining vote as the next 
president. Pratt’s action was not a capitulation to Brigham’s right to 
succeed but a recognition of it. 
 While Mason’s book is a good read—lively, informative, and en-
tertaining—it lacks substance and the authority and credibility of in-
depth scholarly research. 
 
 
The Great Medicine Road, Part 2, Narratives of the Oregon, California, and 
Mormon Trails, 1849, edited by Michael L. Tate, with Will Bagley and 
Richard Rieck. American Trails Series 24. Norman: Arthur H. Clark 
Company, an imprint of the University of Oklahoma Press, 2015. 328 
pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95 hardcover.  
Reviewer J. T. Murphy is professor of history at Indiana University South Bend. 
His research and writing have focused on the military history of the nineteenth-
century U.S. West, the Oregon Trail, and frontier settlement, among other topics. 
Writing in 1917, Henry Ferguson recalled his family’s move in 1849 
from their farm in Jasper County, Iowa, to the gold fields of California. 
He was 11 years old when his parents and six siblings crossed the Mis-
souri River at Kanesville (today’s Council Bluffs), where they joined 
the “Iowa Company” of 42 wagons and “about three hundred souls.” 
They were “all determined in purpose,” Ferguson remembered, “yet 
seemingly almost making a leap in the dark—none having any personal 
knowledge of what lay before them” (120). 
 When the Argonauts of 1849 left for the West, there were guide-
books aplenty on how and where to travel, trails and cutoffs were well 
marked, ferries awaited at many river crossings, and the American 
army maintained a presence along the way. Each day’s routine, how-
ever, might be altered by injury or disease, a real or imagined fear of 
Indians waiting to steal oxen, or the inability to find grass and water. 
Decisions had to be made, resolve maintained. “There is no back out 
now,” Sherman Hawley reported to the Kalamazoo Gazette. “The gold 
diggings are ahead, and we are bound to be there” (185).  


Brigham Young: Sovereign in America

Terry, Jennifer Robin

Cultivating Healthy Personalities: Iowa and the Midcentury White House Conference on Children and Youth

Review of: "Equal Before the Law: How Iowa Led Americans to Marriage Equality," by Tom Witosky and Marc Hansen

Johnson, John W.

98      THE ANNALS OF IOWA 
 Perhaps the book’s greatest contribution is its eloquent reminder 
that Indian people are still here, that despite all odds they were not all 
driven away by the seemingly unstoppable forces of colonization, 
western expansion, disease, and racism. The region’s indigenous people 
have always been, and remain, important parts of the region’s demo-
graphics, culture, and history. Their stories should be foundational to 
the human history of this place. 
 
 
Equal Before the Law: How Iowa Led Americans to Marriage Equality, by 
Tom Witosky and Marc Hansen. Iowa and the Midwest Experience 
Series. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2015. xiii, 236 pp. Illustra-
tions, appendix, notes, index. $19.95 paperback. 
Reviewer John W. Johnson is professor of history at the University of North-
ern Iowa. His books include Affirmative Action (2009); Griswold v. Connecticut: 
Birth Control and the Constitutional Right of Privacy (2005); and The Struggle for 
Student Rights: Tinker v. Des Moines and the 1960s (1997). 
Equal Before the Law was published in June 2015, within days of the 
U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark same-sex marriage decision, Obergefell 
v. Hodges. The timing was fortuitous. Varnum v. Brien, the 2009 Iowa 
Supreme Court decision examined in Equal Before the Law, was an im-
portant link in the chain of state and federal legal precedents that led to 
the nationalization of same-sex marriage by the nation’s highest court. 
The story of the road to same-sex marriage in Iowa needed to be told. 
It is a saga populated with intriguing personalities, complicated by 
rapidly changing legal issues, shot through with partisan politics, and 
contested as a high-profile skirmish in the culture wars.  
 Various individuals could conceivably have written a book on the 
Varnum case. An activist in the LGBT community, for example, could 
have prepared an impassioned apologia for same-sex marriage. Or a 
litigant or lawyer in the Iowa case could have crafted a riveting day-by-
day account. Or a political scientist or constitutional historian might 
have produced a book replete with legal ruminations and lengthy 
footnotes. But none of these categories of writers were first off the line. 
Instead, Equal Before the Law is the work of two accomplished Iowa 
journalists.  
 Tom Witosky and Marc Hansen, both formerly of the Des Moines 
Register, begin their treatment of same-sex marriage in Iowa in the late 
1990s. Iowa was then one of the vast majority of American states with 
statutory bans on same-sex marriage. In addition, the country was 
under the sway of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which 
forbade states from according full faith and credit to a same-sex mar-
Book Reviews and Notices      99 
riage granted in any other state. In the 1990s closeted gay Iowa law-
makers were so intimidated that they sided with conservative Repub-
licans to defend “traditional marriage” whenever the matter came be-
fore the state legislature.  
 After a look backward at Iowa’s generally progressive history of 
protecting individual rights, the authors introduce readers to the six 
same-sex couples who were carefully selected by Lambda Legal, a gay 
rights litigation group, to be the plaintiffs in a challenge to the Iowa 
statute restricting marriage to people of opposite sexes. Each couple 
has a story of how Iowa’s traditional marriage law adversely affected 
them. For example, Jen and Dawn BarbouRoske of Iowa City strug-
gled to explain to teachers and school administrators that their pre-
cocious daughter has two mothers. Larry Hoch and David Twombley, 
retired schoolteachers living in Des Moines, alerted the Iowa populace 
to the particular concerns of older gay men. The authors also profile 
the lawyers for the plaintiffs and the county officials defending Iowa’s 
traditional marriage statute.  
 Among the most interesting sections of Equal Before the Law are the 
portions of the book containing profiles of the judges and justices 
called upon to adjudicate Varnum v. Brien. In applying the sections of 
the U.S. Constitution and the Iowa Constitution mandating equality 
before the law, the courts ultimately found in favor of the same-sex 
litigants. And, perhaps remarkably, the final Iowa Supreme Court de-
cision, written by Justice Mark Cady, was unanimous. Witosky and 
Hansen were permitted remarkable access to the Iowa jurists, eliciting 
from them revealing insights into their individual thoughts and court 
deliberations. The authors were also successful in convincing Iowa 
legislators to open up about their views on same-sex marriage in the 
legislative process. Informed Iowans, especially those who have lived 
in the state for two decades or more, will recognize—and may even be 
acquainted with—some of the key players in the drama. 
 As most Iowans recall, the final ruling in Varnum v. Brien was far 
from the last word on same-sex marriage in the state. Public opinion 
polls at the time of the 2009 decision revealed that Iowans’ attitudes 
toward same-sex marriage were sharply divided. Taking advantage of 
the mixed public sentiment, religious conservatives in the state, led by 
Bob Vander Plaats, president of a group called the The FAMiLY Leader, 
sought to unseat members of the Supreme Court majority in Varnum 
who were up for a retention vote by the electorate in 2010. The three 
targeted justices, having ethical concerns that possible campaign do-
nors might later bring cases to the Iowa Supreme Court, refused to 
campaign or raise money to keep their jobs. As a result, all three failed 
100      THE ANNALS OF IOWA 
to receive enough votes for retention. Two years later, by contrast, an-
other justice from the Varnum majority did conduct a campaign in his 
own behalf and did receive enough votes to stay on the court. 
 As a book intended for a wide readership, Equal Before the Law is 
understandably light on the parsing of legal doctrine. Varnum v. Brien 
is just one of a long string of privacy and equal protection precedents 
in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, culminating in the 
federal Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell decision. Witosky and Hansen 
do not make any serious technical legal errors in their treatment of the 
case, but readers desiring more probing and detailed legal analyses 
will need to peruse law journals.  
 The authors of Equal Before the Law write in a simple, breezy style 
that moves the narrative along smartly. Occasionally, however, the 
prose is a little too precious. Take this sentence: “Much of the time, it 
[Iowa] is a purple-clad political cross-dresser.”  
 On balance, Witosky and Hansen have fashioned a worthy contri-
bution to the ever growing list of titles on major American court cases. 
Iowans who care about recent state history or the civil liberties of its 
people should definitely not miss Equal Before the Law. 


Equal Before the Law: How Iowa Led Americans to Marriage Equality

Review of: "Inspiration and Innovation: Religion in the American West," by Todd M. Ker-stetter

Anderson, Douglas Firth

Book Reviews and Notices      85 
ment backed up by a flow chart. Noting that “case studies illustrate 
and modulate the model by applying it to specific times and places” 
(130), the author then takes readers on a wild ride through stories of 
border manipulations, “Neanderthal politics” (185), and the varying 
influences of the locational choices of railroads and industry that 
shaped their histories. The general result was a “developmental delay” 
(203) that relegated most state capitals to middling places in the urban 
hierarchy. They became quiet administrative towns and “forgotten cit-
ies” (205) and acquired a negative image in the mid–twentieth century.  
 Since the 1950s, revitalized and expanding state governments with 
increasing state employment, new constitutions, political systems that 
limited corruption, and more access to federal grants helped dispel 
that image. Service businesses and high-tech industries followed, giv-
ing the cities a more professional, white-collar look. Even so, tourism 
remains underdeveloped, and most state capitals today remain in the 
middle of the urban hierarchy. Montès groups them into three types: 
modern state capitals, “seemingly unchanged capitals” (247) (including 
Des Moines), and second-rank capitals. After all this model building, 
the author again “validates” the model with three brief, fairly general, 
case studies of Columbus, Ohio; Des Moines, Iowa; and Frankfort, 
Kentucky. The model shows that although each city is unique, their 
histories indicate that each was integrated into and thus compelled to 
navigate the shifting patterns of national political, economic, and so-
cial development. A quick review of the efforts of former state capitals 
to find a niche in heritage and “small-town” tourism or another source 
of economic growth near a metropolis, seems to confirm this view. 
Iowa City, for example, became the home of the state university and in 
the 1970s restored its old state capitol as a historic site. And yet, in 
spite of the importance of economics and politics in explaining state 
capitals, the fact that state capitals maintain such a special place in 
American life suggests to the author that the “cultural approach” still 
matters. Careful and diligent readers will come away with a new and 
enhanced understanding of state capitals.   
Inspiration and Innovation: Religion in the American West, by Todd M. Ker-
stetter. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015. xi, 275 pp. Map, illustra-
tions, suggested reading lists, index. $81.95 hardcover, $26.95 paperback. 
Reviewer Douglas Firth Anderson is professor emeritus of history at North-
western College (Iowa) and coauthor of Orange City (2014). 
Religion and Iowa have been intertwined since before Iowa became a 
state. Being “west” was also a part of Iowa’s identity for a while, al-
86      THE ANNALS OF IOWA 
though not as long as religion has been. Of course, Iowa’s religion and 
region have been dynamic and contested over time. Iowans’ religious 
assumptions, sensibilities, activities, and institutions have cycled in 
expansion, contraction, and/or collision. Where Iowa was/is has also 
been in either or both of at least two places: West (of Old Man River), 
and the Middle West. 
 Todd M. Kerstetter’s new history of religion in the American West, 
then, promises some perspective on and for Iowa’s placement and 
religiosity. Kerstetter is a historian at Texas Christian University who 
has published before on religion in the American West. The book is the 
fourth volume in the publisher’s Western History Series, a collection 
intended as college textbooks that are also more generally accessible. 
The prose in this volume is jargon-free, and the scholarly apparatus is 
minimized (the footnotes are few, and instead of a general bibliog-
raphy, limited suggested readings—almost exclusively books—follow 
each chapter).  
 In a brief introduction the author concisely sets an interpretive 
framework for the volume. The book’s subject is “the religious history 
of the trans-Mississippi United States” (1). Religion “inspired” the res-
idents in and immigrants to the West, while “the region’s historical 
development shaped religious innovations” (3). Kerstetter then tackles 
his subject in chronologically ordered chapters that critically narrate 
topics such as indigenous religions, European missions (Spain, France, 
and Russia), and Roman Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Jewish, Asian, 
and other religious perspectives, developments, and institutions in the 
West. Contemporary material includes not only Branch Davidians but 
also megachurches, Hare Krishna (ISKCON), polygamous Mormons, 
the sanctuary movement, and the Native American Church. 
 The book is solidly done. Kerstetter provides an accessible narra-
tive of the history of religion in the West that is filled with examples of 
the importance of religion in western lives as well as in social and cul-
tural developments. Yet various things about the book undercut its 
potential. The publisher chose a cover illustration that is puzzling: 
George Caleb Bingham’s Daniel Boone Escorting Settlers through the 
Cumberland Gap. Although Kerstetter does discusses the painting (90) 
as evidence of the intertwining of Manifest Destiny thinking and clas-
sic depictions of the Holy Family, it is neither of the trans-Mississippi 
West nor overtly religious. More substantively, Kerstetter inconsistently 
engages what the West as region encompasses. He says the book’s 
region is the trans-Mississippi West, but he confesses that he does not 
feel he is in the West until he is somewhere well into Nebraska (2). 
While he recognizes that regional boundaries are fluid and that what 
Book Reviews and Notices      87 
is “west” entails an “eastern” perspective, he nowhere engages with 
the Midwest region—does it overlap with the West? The recently 
rejuvenated Midwest studies movement was probably too recent for 
Kerstetter to take account of, but, there is no sign of his having read, 
for example, Philip Barlow’s case for a Midwest “Bible Suspender” 
of religious affiliation. (Indeed, it is puzzling that he did not seem to 
consult any of the five trans- or straddling-the-Mississippi volumes of 
AltaMira Press’s Religion by Region series, in one of which Barlow’s 
case appears. See “A Demographic Portrait: America Writ Small?” in 
Religion and Public Life in the Midwest: America’s Common Denominator, 
ed. Philip Barlow and Mark Silk [2004].) 
 Iowa makes no appearance in Kerstetter’s volume. He could have 
brought it in, say, with his discussion of Presbyterian home missionary 
Sheldon Jackson. He treats the important role Jackson played in terri-
torial Alaska (116–17), but he could have noted the 1869 Sioux City 
Presbytery of Missouri River, which provided Jackson with the au-
thority for his church-planting work around the West. Or, he might 
have considered discussing the Iowa-Oregon-California Quaker roots 
of Herbert Hoover. Or, he could have discussed Transcendental Medi-
tation and its headquartering in Fairfield. 
 There are other problems. In coverage, his section “Modernism, 
Fundamentalism, and the Spirit of the West” (172–77) has no western 
examples of modernism. Also absent are the role of Judaism in Holly-
wood and Las Vegas and the importance of religion in the West in the 
rise of environmentalism (there is no mention of John Muir). In analy-
sis, the theme of inspiration and innovation at times becomes a cookie-
cutter “interpretation” in place of more nuanced reflection. 
  Kerstetter’s book, then, does not fully live up to its promise for 
western or Iowa religion. Still, the author has accomplished a great 
deal in synthesizing important developments and examples of religion 
in the American West. 
Guaranteed Pure: The Moody Bible Institute, Business, and the Making of 
Modern Evangelicalism, by Timothy E. W. Gloege. Chapel Hill: Univer-
sity of North Carolina Press, 2015. xv, 307 pp. Illustrations, notes, bib-
liography, index. $34.95 hardcover. 
Reviewer Bill R. Douglas recently retired from his role as a downtown carrier 
for the Des Moines Register, freeing him to concentrate on studying Iowa’s reli-
gious history. 
Guaranteed Pure, along with Kevin Kruse’s One Nation Under God, may 
spark a new trend in American religious studies, combining business 


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