Item Detail
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22053
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0
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0
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English
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Educating the Mormon Hierarchy : The Grassroots Opposition to the MX in Utah
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Utah in the Twentieth Century
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Logan, UT
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Utah State University Press
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146-166
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"The federal government's ownership of more than half the land in the Great Basin invited conversion of vast tracts for bombing and missile ranges, weapons installations, and military bases during the twentieth century. One of the largest would have been the ninety-eight-thousand-acre MX missile base proposed by the Carter and Reagan administrations. The base would have brought fresh infusions of capital and jobs but potentially disrupted social and ecological relationships in Utah's sparsely populated west desert. In the following chapter, Jacob W. Olmstead draws upon a rich array of oral history interviews and the archival records of activists and politicians. He describes the multi-pronged lobbying efforts that helped persuade the LDS Church's First Presidency officially to oppose construction of the MX base in Utah and Nevada. In the process, Olmstead explores the relationship connecting denominational leaders within the state's religious community in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the communication between LDS leaders and elected officials. Whether or not the curch's position definitively influenced the Reagan administration to abandon plans for an MX base in Utah, the decision was a triumph for liberals and the fledgling peace movement within the state." [Editor's abstract]