Reviews -- The Gathering Place: An Illustrated History of Salt Lake City



	The Gathering Place An Illustrated History of Salt Lake City

Journal of the West, Matthew Kreitzer
John S. McCormick's vision for an erudite yet accessible history of Salt Lake City has been successfully achieved in The Gathering Place. The text is well organized, lucid, and fascinating. The illustrations are superb. The past, in all its complexity, is brought to life through a compelling narrative that is underscored by appropriate quotations. McCormick's view of Salt Lake City is as realistic as the local surroundings. The highlights are as beautiful as the snow- capped mountain peaks along the Wasatch Front, while the low points are as repulsive as a drink from the Great Salt Lake. The recommended readings section at the end of each chapter was helpful, though end notes with attendant bibliography would have been appreciated. This book ought to be picked up and perused often. At each sitting, the reader will gain a deeper understanding of the dynamic characters who created the institution, the "gathering place," that is Salt Lake City.

Utah Historical Quarterly
To most Utahns, the term "gathering place" conjures up thoughts of resolute Mormon pioneers making their way to Salt Lake City by ship, covered wagon, and handcart from the far corners of the world. But historian John McCormick sees in the history of Salt Lake City much more than just this part of the story. The gathering, and consequently the history of Salt Lake City, involves many people from the prehistoric residents to those who came as nineteenth-century pioneers or twentieth- century immigrants from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and other parts of the world. Using a treasure of historical photographs and an insightful and well-written text, McCormick presents a history of Salt Lake City that he defines as "painfully rich and diverse ... extraordinarily interesting ... complicated and ambiguous, full of paradox and irresolution. It is the story not just of one people but of many peoples—many voices, experiences, points of view, traditions, values, and ways of life—and of their complex interplay. Salt Lake has always been a multicultural, multiethnic, and multiracial city, and its past has belonged not to just one group, but to many" (x).

In a large sense, The Gathering Place is an alternative history to what McCormick labels "the official story," reminding us of the words of Plato: "Those who hold the power also tell the stories." And while it is an alternative history, it is in its own way a triumphant history in that the struggles and lives of fur traders, Mormons, African Americans, politicians, businessmen, anarchists, communists, socialists, gays, lesbians, and many others do come forth to illustrate the richness and diversity of human life even in Salt Lake City.

The eleven chapters are presented in a general chronological order and entitled: The Search for Zion; Defying the Desert, Establishing the Kingdom; The First Generation; Conflict and Concession; The Nineteenth-Century City; A City of Immigrants; The Built Environment; Hard Times; The World War II Years; Contrasting Cultures and Lifestyles; and As Complex a Place as Can Be Imagined.