Buffalo Bill and the Mormons

Brent M. Rogers is a historian and the managing historian for the Joseph Smith Papers. He is the author of Unpopular Sovereignty: Mormons and the Federal Management of Early Utah Territory (Nebraska, 2017), winner of the 2018 Charles Redd Center–Phi Alpha Theta Book Award for the Best Book on the American West, and the coeditor of Contingent Citizens: Shifting Perceptions of Latter-day Saints in American Political Culture.

“[Rogers’s] uniquely focused narrative of Cody’s turnabout will attract fans of Old West life unfamiliar with this tale of show business and history.”-Booklist "In Buffalo Bill and the Mormons, Rogers has written a compelling and little-known story, vibrantly written, and thoroughly researched. . . . The closing of the American Frontier coincided with the opening of the nation to a more favorable view of Utah and its predominant religion. Buffalo Bill and the Mormons stands as an important addition to the literature of that transition."-Kevin Folkman, Association for Mormon Letters "Rogers . . . offers a valuable study by placing William F. Cody’s relationship with the Mormons in the larger context of national and international events."-T. G. Alexander, Choice "Anyone who thinks that Buffalo Bill Cody's biography has been examined upside-down and sideways should pick up Brent M. Rogers' well-researched book to learn yet another side of the Wild West showman."-Sandra K. Sagala, Roundup Magazine "This book is a very readable account and will be useful to anyone interested in more of the history of Buffalo Bill, the Mormons, and the American West in general."-Steve Friesen, Denver Posse of Westerners “In this carefully researched book, Brent Rogers traces the surprisingly entangled and little-known stories of William F. ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A remarkable history of how two western forces, famed showman and fabled church, mythologized each other.”-Louis S. Warren, author of Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show “By asking a seemingly simple question-what were Buffalo Bill’s ties to the Latter-day Saints?-Rogers offers a fascinating new perspective on the life and career of William F. Cody. Situated within the political and religious angst about Mormon polygamy in post–Civil War America, Rogers’s extensive research and sharp analysis bring to life Cody’s complicated and evolving connection to the Latter-day Saints.”-RenÉe M. Laegreid, professor of western history at the University of Wyoming “The American West was a gathering place for all sorts. Through lyrical prose and impressive research Brent Rogers has excavated the revealing-and often surprising-intersections between two cultural forces: Buffalo Bill and the Mormons. But beyond separating fact from fiction, this book captures some of the central tensions of a culture enmeshed in the paradoxes of colonization.”-Benjamin E. Park, author of American Zion: A New History of Mormonism