Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Rondal W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., Glen M. Leonard

     In September of 1857, as Utah Mormon's prepared to face the marching army of the United States, a group of emigrants travelled south through Utah on their way to the California gold fields and cattle ranches.  On the 11th of that month, they were drawn from the safety of their circled wagons by a waving flag of truce flown by a group of Mormon militia, only to be slaughtered: men, women and children.
     Examined repeatedly, this shocking event, has troubled both Mormons, non-Mormons and historians for more than a hundred years.  Walker, Turley, and Leonard have set aside previous biased "histories" of the event and with unprecedented access to documents not previously available have written a powerful narrative of not only the event itself, but also of the myriad of contributing factors including the characters involved, the atmosphere, the political realities, and the previous events that predicated the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
     As a student of history and having studied various histories and learned of the event from LDS church historians and college professors, I found Massacre and Mountain Meadows, to present a balanced engaging account.  This book is a must read for any student of history, as it is exemplary of professional historians' skill and purpose.