| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 38.3

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 38.3 | The History Cooperative

*God's Country, Uncle Sam's Land: Faith and Conflict in the American West.* By Todd M. Kerstetter. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. vii + 224 pp. Map, notes, index. $36.00.)
Todd Kerstetter's opening chapter samples some of the many ways religion has figured in the mainstream life of the West, concluding that the region has generally been hospitable to a wide variety of religious views and practices. Then he offers three detailed case studies of an intolerant federal government in conflict with an out-of-the mainstream religious group: the Mormons, the Ghost Dancers, and the Branch Davidians.	1
In Kerstetter's telling of the story, each of these three suffered attack by U. S. forces because their religious values and behaviors went beyond what the mainstream society could tolerate. In each case, the government struck back with excessive ferocity. But the government was always confronting a genuine threat to established norms. Too much difference, Kerstetter implies, threatens America's precarious unity and cohesion.	2
The book is chock full of historical detail, generally well researched, and always clearly presented. Each case study is a useful survey of scholarly knowledge about the episode.	. . .

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