Item Detail
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11968
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0
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0
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English
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The Transformation of the Mormon Culture Region and the Creation of New Regional Citizens
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Iowa City, IA
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University of Iowa
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349
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Ph.D. diss.
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"While traditional regional geography emphasized the homogeneity of culture regions, the new regional geography views culture as an arena of political struggle. This dissertation is a work in the new regional geography. The conflicts and struggles between non-Mormons and Mormons around the turn of the twentieth century produced rapid change in what has been called the Mormon culture region (an area centered on Utah in the western United States and expanding into neighboring states). Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) were Americanized in this process. But this Mormon/non-Mormon dynamic also produced regional transformation and a reworked set of regionally specific moral orders. This dissertation looks closely at shifting moral orders in relation to gender authority, economic responsibility, and national loyalty. It argues that these moral orders all shifted in such a way that it became more difficult to socially consider (or even conceive of) alternatives to the contemporary social structure. Regional inhabitants (both Mormon and non-Mormon) found that regional peace and cooperation depended on downplaying differences within the region and subscribing to a narrow set of possible options for gender relations, economic relations, and expressions of national loyalty." [Author's abstract]