Transformation of the Mormon Culture Region

Book excerpt: In the late nineteenth century the Mormon "culture region" of the American West was considered radical, characterized by sexual immorality, communalism, and anti-Americanism. Today, social conservatism marks the region. How did this shift occur?In this unique study, Ethan R. Yorgason foregrounds the concept of region and traces the conformist-conservative trajectory that arose from intense moral and ideological clashes between Mormons and non-Mormons from 1880 to 1920. Non-Mormons worried that Mormons would establish an un-American society in the West, while Mormons feared for the very existence of their church. An example of the new regional geography, Yorgason's work treats culture as an arena of political struggle.Looking through the lenses of regional geography, history, and cultural studies, Yorgason investigates shifting moral orders relating to gender authority, economic responsibility, and national loyalty. He particularly focuses on Mormon feminism, communitarianism, nationalism, and home life.Transformation of the Mormon Culture Region charts the cultural contradictions of both Mormons and non-Mormons and how they were resolved over time by a progressive narrowing of the range of moral positions on gender (in favor of Victorian gender relations), the economy (in favor of individual economics), and the nation (identifying with national power and might). Mormons and non-Mormons together constructed a regime of effective coexistence, while retaining regional distinctiveness.