Earth Will Appear As the Garden of Eden

Jedediah S. Rogers is co-managing editor of the Utah Historical Quarterly. He is the author of Roads in the Wilderness: Conflict in Canyon Country and editor of two documentary accounts of Mormon history.Matthew C. Godfrey is the managing historian of the Joseph Smith Papers. He is the author of Religion, Politics, and Sugar: The Mormon Church, the Federal Government, and the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, 1907–1921.

• Introduction: The Promise and Challenge of Mormon Environmental History, by Jedediah S. Rogers and Matthew C. GodfreyHistory, Nature, and Mormon Historiography, by Jedediah S. RogersPart I: Theology and IdeologyThe “Lion of the Lord” and the Land: Brigham Young’s Environmental Ethic, by Sara Dant Lost Memory and Environmentalism: Mormons on the WasatchFront, 1847–1930, by Thomas G. AlexanderPart II: Perception and PlaceThe Natural World and the Establishment of Zion, 1831–1833, by Matthew C. Godfrey“We Seldom Find Either Garden, Cow, or Pig”: Encountering Environments in Urban England and the American West, by Brett D. DowdleMapping Deseret: Vernacular Mormon Mapmaking and Spiritual Geography in the American West, by Richard FrancavigliaAmerican Zion: Mormon Culture and the Creation of a National Park, by Betsy Gaines QuammenPart III: Agrarianism and UrbanismBefore the Boom: Mormons, Livestock, and Stewardship, 1847–1870, by Jeff Nichols“The People Cannot Conquer the River”: Mormons and Water in the Arid Southwest, 1865–1938, by Brian Frehner“There Are Millions of Acres in Our State”: Mormon Agrarianism and the Environmental Limits of Expansion, by Brian Q. Cannon“The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden”: Spencer W. Kimball and the Transformation of the Mormon Agrarian Tradition, by Nathan N. Waite“For the Strength of the Hills”: Casting a Concrete Zion, by Rebecca K. AndersenEpilogue: On the Moral Lessons of Mormon Environmental History, by George B. HandleyAppendix: Righteous Dominion and Compassion for the Earth, by Marcus B. NashAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyContributorsIndex

“This felicitous collection deepens our understanding of the changing relationship between Latter-day Saints and the environmental world that here encompasses land, water, habitat, place, and home. A milestone in Mormon studies and a benchmark for future scholarship.” — Jared Farmer, author of On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape“A significant contribution. These essays provide a synthesis of the growing literature in the field as well as a springboard and road map for future studies.” — Andrew H. Hedges, professor of church history and doctrine, Brigham Young University