HEAVEN ON EARTH

by William ]. McNiff'24. Mississippi Valley Press. 262 p. $3.00.

THIS IS AN UNUSUAL book about an unusual people. "Heaven on Earth" is an account of social life among the Mormons in the three decades following arrival in the valley of Utah.

The story of the origins of Mormonism, its strange religious tenets, and its remarkable flight into the western wilderness has been often told. But the equally bizarre story of what the Mormons did with themselves after they reached Great Salt Lake is almost unknown.

In the "wards" and "stakes" of the new Zion there were several interesting experiments in cooperative and in communistic enterprise. The church discussed problems of agriculture, commerce and public health at even its most formal religious services. Education became a peculiar blend of trade school and theological seminary. The church took charge of the amusements of the people, made sure that they were pure and orthodox, and used the theatres, the brass bands, the choruses and the dancing parties for its own divine and mundane ends. The weekly Friday dances were opened with prayer by the bishop. Brigham Young himself acted in some of the plays and created the chandeliers for the new Salt Lake City theatre. Only under the Catholic rule of medieval Europe can we find a comparable case of a society whose entire daily life was dominated by its faith and by its priesthood.

All this and more is outlined in "Heaven on Earth." Professor McNiff has dug new facts from the archives and handled them with scholarly care, in a volume which does credit to his college.