The twentieth could easily be Utah’s most interesting, complex century, yet popular ideas of what is history seem mired in the nineteenth. One reason may be the lack of readily available writing on more recent Utah history. This collection of essays shifts historical focus forward to the twentieth, which began and ended with questions of Utah’s fit with the rest of the nation. In between was an extended period of getting acquainted in an uneasy but necessary marriage, which was complicated by the push of economic development and pull of traditional culture, demand for natural resources from a fragile and scenic environment, and questions of who governs and how, who gets a vote, and who controls what is done on and to the contested public lands. Outside trade and a tourist economy increasingly challenged and fed an insular society. Activists left and right declaimed constitutional liberties while Utah’s Native Americans become the last enfranchised in the nation. Proud contributions to national wars contrasted with denial of deep dependence on federal money; the skepticism of provocative writers, with boosters eager for growth; and reflexive patriotism somehow bonded to ingrained distrust of federal government.

The twentieth could easily be Utah’s most interesting, complex century, yet popular ideas of what is history seem mired in the nineteenth. One reason may be the lack of readily available writing on more recent Utah history. This collection of essays shifts historical focus forward to the twentieth, which began and ended with questions of Utah’s fit with the rest of the nation. In between was an extended period of getting acquainted in an uneasy but necessary marriage, which was complicated by the push of economic development and pull of traditional culture, demand for natural resources from a fragile and scenic environment, and questions of who governs and how, who gets a vote, and who controls what is done on and to the contested public lands. Outside trade and a tourist economy increasingly challenged and fed an insular society. Activists left and right declaimed constitutional liberties while Utah’s Native Americans become the last enfranchised in the nation. Proud contributions to national wars contrasted with denial of deep dependence on federal money; the skepticism of provocative writers, with boosters eager for growth; and reflexive patriotism somehow bonded to ingrained distrust of federal government.

Most Utahns spent the years between Mormon entry into the Great Basin and statehood for Utah pursuing the traditional frontier-rural life, a mode which had been an integral part of the American experience since earliest colonial times. After the Mormon capitulation and statehood, Utah moved into a transitional phase, a phase between the traditional and the modern in which elements of each were mixed and mingled. This phase ended with the Second World War. This transition to modernity affected migration behavior. Seen in light of migration theory, the Utah experience is something of an anomaly. One theory says that migration is the result of pushes from one place-- unemployment, low wages, poor climate, and similar conditions--and pulls to other places--available jobs, better pay, and lots of sunshine. The history of Utah migration during prewar years suggests another kind of pull, the pull not from outside to leave but from within to stay. The need and commitment to remain in what some call Zion {the Mormon culture region} was strong until the Second world War. After the war other needs and commitments intervened. Government-funded G.I. Bill education and a new sense of personal efficacy caused some to leave Utah for larger industrial and commercial centers. This study concludes by focusing on the experience of a few Utah veterans who migrated to California during the early 1950s.

A project of the Utah Women's History Association and cosponsored by the Utah State Historical Society, Paradigm or Paradox provides the first thorough survey of the complicated history of all Utah women. Some of the finest historians studying Utah examine the spectrum of significant social and cultural topics in the state's history that particularly have involved or affected women. The contents are as follows: A Comparison of Utah Mormon Polygamous and Monogamous Women Jessie L. Embry and Lois Kelley Innovation and Accommodation: the Legal Status of Women in Territorial Utah, 1847-96 Lisa Madsen Pearson and Carol Cornwall Madsen Conflict and Contributions: Women in Utah Churches, 1847-1920 John Sillito Utah's Ethnic Women Helen Z. Papanikolas The Professionalization of Utah's Farm Women, 1890-1940 Cynthia Sturgis Gainfully Employed Women in Utah Miriam B. Murphy From Schoolmarm to State Superintendent: The Changing Role of Women in Utah Education, 1847-2004 Mary Clark and Patricia Lyn Scott Scholarship, Service, and Sisterhood: Utah Women's Clubs and Associations, 1847-1977 Jill Mulvay Derr Women of Letters in Utah Gary Topping Utah Women in the Arts Martha Sontag Bradley-Evans Women in Politics: Power in the Public Sphere Kathryn L. MacKay Utah Women's Life Stages: 1850-1940 Jessie L. Embry