| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 36.4

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 36.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

*Religion & Public Life in the Mountain West: Sacred Landscapes in Transition*. Religion by Region Series. Edited by Jan Shipps and Mark Silk. (Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press, 2004. 166 pp. Charts, tables, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $55.00, cloth; $19.95, paper.)
The editors state that the Religion by Region Series "represents the first comprehensive effort to show how religion shapes, and is being shaped by, regional culture in America" (p. 5). Although cultural/historical geographers have long studied the role of religion in regional identity, this book is the first to use quantitative data on religious affiliations, and this ensured that the authors could write with confidence and authority.	1
Readers whose pulse quickens by the term "sacred landscapes," however, should be forewarned. The "landscapes" in the subtitle refers less to the physical or designed environment, and more to the socio-political context—much the way the term "political landscape" is currently used.	2
The Mountain West, the fastest growing region in the U. S., includes the states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Ironically, the West's most mountainous and fastest growing state—Nevada—is not covered. With the geographic diversity of this region in mind, Walter Nugent's chapter, "The Religious Demography of an Oasis Culture" broadly interprets the Mountain West's settlement and religious character, demonstrating the relationship between religion, population dynamics, and voting behavior in the Catholic Heartland, the Mormon Corridor, and the "Polarized Tribes."	. . .

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