'Arrington gives readers as good a picture as they are likely to get of the man who assumed leadership of the major part of the Mormon church when Joseph Smith was assassinated in 1844.'-R. Laurence Moore, New York Times Book Review
From the preface: "Brigham Young was the supreme American paradox, not because he contained elements foreign to American soil but because he united them--the business genius of a Rockefeller with the spiritual sensitivities of an Emerson, the lusty enjoyments of the pleasures...