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All rights reserved.Necessary Fraud by Nancy J. Taniguchi (1996)
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Publisher's Note In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the State of Utah was the federal choice for what was intended to be a definitive antitrust suit aimed at quelling the power of western railroads over coal lands in the diminishing public domain. The government did not achieve this primary objective, but through decades of litigation it did force the passage of a realistic coal-land law and develop precedents for its application. Using century-old photographs and copious documentation, Nancy J. Taniguchi creates a legal history of land fraud in Utah's turn-of-the-century coal fields that intertwines national, regional, and local events. Necessary Fraud transcends parochialism to become a compelling exposition on the era of progressive reform. Alternating between actions in Utah and in Washington, D.C., the book traces a series of coal-land cases that passed through the courts and government agencies as Congress struggled to reform the Coal Land Act of 1873. As the story moves between courtroom and coal field, the collusion between railroads and coal companies becomes ever clearer. Taniguchi's portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt contrasts sharply with his standard image as trust-buster, and she reveals for the first time the depth of involvement of both the State of Utah and the Mormon Church in the land frauds. Industry Reviews Making effective use of pubic records, manuscript collections, court decisions, and newspapers, Taniguchi carefully depicts the collusion between fuel companies and railroads as they fought a series of legal battles on the state and national level to safeguard their rights to the coal. This meticulous legal history shows the interrelationship of the Utah state government, economic development in eastern Utah, Progressive reform on the national levels, and the painfully slow process of revising the Coal Land Act. Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company. Hyser The book has the form of a virtually seamless chronological narrative, too much of it at a level of economic and legal detail that will defeat all but the most committed readers. . . . The subject matter of Necessary Fraud is undeniably important, and the book will be of some use to historians of antitrust efforts, railroad, western mining, and the public domain as well as to enthusiasts for anything having to do with Utah history, including the Mormons. Even these groups, however, will have to tangle with a tedious recitation of the particulars of corporate organization and legal maneuvering. Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company. Graebner | Find errors in the product description? Submit a catalog update request now. | ||||||||||||||||||
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