A Dependent Commonwealth: Utah's Economy from Statehood to the Great Depression

A Dependent Commonwealth
Utah's Economy from Statehood to the Great Depression
LEONARD J. ARRINGTON and THOMAS G. ALEXANDER, eds.
Charles Redd Monographs in Western History Series No. 4
Paperback. 128 Pages. / 0-8425-1013-3 / $4.95

Before statehood, Utah Mormons kept close to what Leonard Arrington calls the "well-organized, relatively self-sufficient ecclesiastical commonwealth ... based on irrigated agriculture, village industry, and occasional organized efforts to take advantage of fortuitous windfalls." Another segment of the population was involved in what Dean May characterizes in his introduction as an "individualistic, hell-for-leather scramble to extract the mineral riches from Utah's hills." This part of Utah's population admired Jacksonian entrepreneurship.

After statehood, Utah saw the commercialization of agriculture, the growth of commercial and financial enterprises, the arrival of large corporations to oversee mining, and the blending of Mormon and non-Mormon economies. Utah needed to find exportable goods such as livestock and ore and the associated transportation infrastructure to be able to compete nationally. Such endeavors fared well up through World War I but became overbuilt and were therefore hit hard by the Great Depression. The authors consider these successes and missteps as Utah converted itself from a socialistic economy to a capitalistic stronghold, and they make predictions about what the long-term implications are.

	Leonard J. Arrington was a professor of economics at Utah State University, professor of history at Brigham Young University, and Church Historian for the Latter-day Saint church.			Thomas G. Alexander is a professor of Western Studies at Brigham Young University.