Overview

Family history, usually destined or even designed for limited consumption, is a familiar genre within Mormon culture. Mostly written with little attention to standards of historical scholarship, such works are a distinctly hagiographic form of family memorabilia.But in the right hands, many family sagas can prove widely engaging, owing to inherent drama and historical relevance. They can truthfully illuminate larger matters of history, humanity, and culture. Kerry Bate proceeds on the premise that a story centering on The Women of the clan could provide fresh perspective and insight. He portrays real people with wellrounded, flawed characters; builds from deep research; writes with a bit of style; and includes the rich context and detail of these lives. His main subjects are four generations of impressive women: the pioneer Catherine Campbell Steele; her daughter Young Elizabeth, the first Mormon child born in Utah; Kate, an accomplished community leader; and Sarah, a gifted seamstress trapped in an unhappy marriage. To enter their hardscrabble lives in small southern Utah communities is to meet women who pioneered in modest but determined ways.

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9781607815167

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Reviews

The Women gives specific information about nearly every aspect of life on the American frontier housing, food, medicine, animals, transportation, gas, and later electrical lighting. It personalizes a great many things that are often discussed only in general or technical and impersonal terms. Colleen Keyes Whitley, author of Worth Their Salt: Notable but Often Unnoted Women of Utah and Worth Their Salt, Too: More Notable but Often Unnoted Women

Author Information

Kerry William Bate has been a community organizer, Utah State Community Development Division director, and director of the Housing Authority of the County of Salt Lake. He has published in such varied magazines as The Utah Realtor,Utah Historical Quarterly, OralHistory Review, The American Genealogist, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and has authored or coauthored four family histories. 

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