View source for Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows

{{Main Page}}  
{{H1
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
|H=Response to "Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows"
|S=
|L1=
|T=Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
|A=Will Bagley
|<=
|>=
}}
<!-- INSERT CHART HERE -->
<onlyinclude>
{{H2
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
|H=Response to claims made in "Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows" by Will Bagley
|S=
|L1=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Front matter"
|L2=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 1: Their Innocent Blood Will Cry unto the Lord of Hosts"
|L3=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 2: The Battle-Ax of the Lord"
|L4=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 3: Political Hacks, Robbers, and Whoremongers"
|L5=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 4: The Arkansas Travelers"
|L6=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 5: I Will Fight Them and I Will Fight All Hell"
|L7=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 6: We Are American Citizens and Shall Not Move"
|L8=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 7: The Knife and Tomahawk"
|L9=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 8: The Work of Death"
|L10=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 9: The Scene of Blood and Carnage"
|L11=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 10: Plunder"
|L12=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 11: All Hell Is in Commotion"
|L13=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 12: I Have Slain My Children"
|L14=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 13: Vengeance Is Mine"
|L15=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 14: A Hideous Lethargic Dream"
|L16=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 15: Lonely Dell"
|L17=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 16: As False as the Hinges of Hell: The Trials of John D. Lee"
|L18=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 17: He Died Game: The Execution of John D. Lee"
|L19=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 18: The Mountain Meadow Dogs"
|L20=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Chapter 19: Nothing but the Truth Is Good Enough"
|L21=Response to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Epilogue: The Ghosts of Mountain Valley"
|L22=Responses to claims made in Blood of the Prophets, "Appendix"
}}
</onlyinclude>
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Front matter}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 1}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 2}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 3}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 4}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 5}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 6}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 7}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 8}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 9}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 10}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 11}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 12}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 13}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 14}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 15}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 16}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 17}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 18}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Chapter 19}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Epilogue}}
{{:Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Appendix}}
{{SummaryItem
|link=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Use of sources
|subject=Use of sources
|summary=An examination and response to how the author of ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows'' interprets the sources used to support this work, indexed by page number.
}}
{{SummaryItem
|link=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Omissions
|subject=Omissions
|summary=A listing of notable events which were omitted or not acknowledged by the author of ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows''.
}}
</onlyinclude>
==About this work==

{{Epigraph|Even though Bagley claims to be aware of “the basic rules of the craft of history” (xvi), he consistently violates them in ''Blood of the Prophets''.<br> &mdash; W. Paul Reeve and Ardis E. Parshall, "review of ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows'', by Will Bagley," ''Mormon Historical Studies'' (Spring 2003): 149.}}
{{Epigraph|Attempting to write a gripping story. Bagley exaggerates and sensationalizes the details beyond their actual significance. Throughout the entire book, facts associated with the massacre become crucial when tied to prophecy, omens, signs, oaths, patriarchal blessings, or temple rituals. Facts become extremely important if they are dark and dirty, have hidden meaning, or hint at some insidious secret, plot, or conspiracy. In addition, Bagley creates a melodrama characterizing the Mormons as sinister, evil, deceptive people, while the governor and Indian agents who cooperate with the Saints are weak, spineless dupes. The judges, military officers, and officials who challenge the Mormon theocracy he views as honorable, upright, respectable, courageous men.<br>&mdash;{{BYUS1|author=Lawrence Coates|article=[http://byustudies.byu.edu/Reviews/Pages/reviewdetail.aspx?reviewID=95 Review of ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows]''|date=January 2003|vol=42|num=1|start=153}}}}

==Reviews of this work==
{{MaxwellInstituteBar
|link=https://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1457&index=11
|title=A Trial Lawyer Reviews Will Bagley's ''Blood of the Prophets''
|author=Robert D. Crockett
|publication=The FARMS Review
|vol=15
|num=2
|date=2003
|summary=Bagley's particular claim to make this book worthwhile is that he has "troubling new evidence" to prove that President Brigham Young and Apostle George A. Smith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were accessories before the fact to commit the massacre.2 By contrast, in her watershed and erudite works,3 Juanita Brooks tells us that "no real evidence . . . has been found" to implicate these authorities before the massacre.4 As to matters after the massacre, Bagley follows the path well-worn by others to conclude that Brigham Young was an accessory after the fact to obstruct justice.
<br>
My review examines the way in which the author of Blood of the Prophets handles these new and old theories. In so doing, I challenge some of Juanita Brooks's earlier conclusions. As a trial lawyer, I offer my perspective of the quality of Bagley's and Brooks's evidence and arguments in some key areas. Trial lawyers may not be trained historians, but we are called upon to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various classes of evidence and to interpret the meaning of official government action. The heinous massacre, its investigation, the trial of John D. Lee, and the actions of persons who control or are swept into the legal process (presidents, cabinet members, judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, grand jurors, petit jurors, marshals, and witnesses) are all matters that lend themselves to a legal analysis. I am surprised that so little has been done in this area of the massacre's legal aftermath.
}}
* {{BYUS1|author=Thomas G. Alexander|article=Review of ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows''|date=January 2003|vol=31|num=1|start=167&ndash;}} {{link|url=http://byustudies.byu.edu/Reviews/Pages/reviewdetail.aspx?reviewID=99}}
* {{BYUS1|author=Lawrence Coates|article=Review of ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows''|date=January 2003|vol=31|num=1|start=153&ndash;}} {{link|url=http://byustudies.byu.edu/Reviews/Pages/reviewdetail.aspx?reviewID=95}}
* {{BYUS1|author=Paul H. Peterson|article=Review of ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows''|date=January 2003|vol=31|num=1|start=159&ndash;}} {{link|url=http://byustudies.byu.edu/Reviews/Pages/reviewdetail.aspx?reviewID=206}}
* W. Paul Reeve and Ardis E. Parshall, "review of ''Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows'', by Will Bagley," ''Mormon Historical Studies'' (Spring 2003): 149–157.

===Videos===
{{Video:Sessions:2003:Shining New Light}}




[[Category:Mountain Meadows Massacre]]