Mormons and Cowboys, Moonshiners and Klansmen: Federal Law Enforcement in the South and West, 1870-1893, by Stephen Cresswell, 1991, University of Alabama Press

Mormons and Cowboys, Moonshiners and Klansmen: Federal Law Enforcement in the South and West, 1870-1893. By Stephen Cresswell.

University of Alabama Press, 1991, hardback. ISBN number 0817305300. Includes photos, maps; 330 pages. Now out of print in hardback, but available here. Signed copies are available.

New hardback book priced at $19.95, plus $2.49 shipping to U.S. street addresses.

Summary: After the Civil War federal criminal laws moved into bold new areas, and clashed with state laws and local customs. Using a case-study approach, Cresswell assesses the work of U.S. attorneys and marshals as they enforced locally unpopular laws.

The four case studies: battling the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, attacking polygamy in Utah Territory, prosecuting moonshiners in Tennessee, and combatting lawlessness in Arizona Territory.

Critical comments: "The four case studies are excellent. The book is well-written, firmly based in primary sources." —Professor David J. Langum, Cumberland School of Law.

"This is a very well-written, carefully organized study that cuts across a number of boundaries, historically, geographically, and legally. A significant contribution to American legal history, and scholars in the field will take it very seriously." —John R. Wunder, Center for Great Plains Studies.

"A lively account of the work of United States attorneys and marshals in four areas of the country. Cresswell's work is important because he studied the justice system at the grass-roots level. A well-crafted book." —North Carolina Historical Review.

"Along the way we encounter attorneys general who are more concerned about accounting for a quarter spent on roach powder than about writing comprehensive instructions for his subordinates; judges who fine election-law violators a dollar; marshals who take out personal mortgages to obtain operating funds for the courts; and rural folks so poor they seek to become witnesses in order to earn fees." —Journal of Southern History.

Keywords for this book: United States Attorneys, federal prosecutors, U.S. marshals, U.S. attorney, Department of Justice, Attorney General, Mississippi, Utah Territory, Tennessee, Arizona Territory, Brigham Young, George Q. Cannon, Mormon Church, Mountain Meadows, Ku Klux Klan, polygamy, plural marriages, bigamy, unlawful cohabitation, counterfeiting, moonshining, illegal distilling, revenue, revenuers, pension frauds, fraud, timber trespass, violence, resistance, criminal law, criminals, statutes, laws, Amos T. Akerman, Edwards Pierrepont, George H. Williams, Charles Devens, Augustus Hill Garland, Alphonso Taft, Benjamin Harris Brewster, William Henry Harrison Miller, Isaac Wayne MacVeagh, Oxford, Holly Springs, Salt Lake City, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Tucson, Enforcement Acts, Ku Klux Act, Edmunds Act, Morrill Act, juries, jurors, federal lands, convictions, acquittal, convict, acquit, cases dismissed, Greene C. Chandler, Crawley P. Dake, Joseph L. Morphis, William H. Dickson, Robert A. Hill, Sumner Howard, Harry R. Jeffords, James H. Pierce, Green B. Raum, Owen T. Rouse, C.W.C. Rowell, Converse Rowell, Zan L. Tidball, W.S. Tipton, Philip T. Van Zile, Charles Stetson Varian, G. Wiley Wells, Edward B. McKean, Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Tombstone, OK Corral shoot-out, O.K. Corral shootout, Wham robbery, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, Congress, state law, federal law, Attorneys general.

History Books by Stephen Cresswell