American Zion

Cliven Bundy, God & Public Lands in the West

By: Betsy Gaines Quammen

Narrated by: Emily Durante

American Zion is the story of the Bundy family, famous for their armed conflicts in the West. With an antagonism that goes back to the very first Mormons who fled the Midwest for the Great Basin, they hold a sense of entitlement that confronts both law and democracy. Today their cowboy confrontations threaten public lands, wild species, and American heritage.

©2019 Betsy Gaines Quammen (P)2020 Tantor

For those curious about public lands.

I spend a fair amount of time utilizing public lands for camping and hiking. This was an interesting history of how the Mormon faith and public lands interact in states where so much land is public. I wasn’t really sure of what it was going ti be when I started but thoroughly enjoyed it the whole way through. The research was so in-depth it seems to have covered the history completely. This book was much appreciated and enjoyed.

Take Your Stand to Protect & Support Our Public Lands

A Caring, Intelligent and Loving, as well as in-depth dive into the forces pressing on public lands in America.

Ms Quammen fearlessly confronts and explains the harsh realities of anarchy, greed and violent bullying of those that would acquire and lock Americans out of their public lands.

She also contrasts that with those who choose to follow legal strategies to increase and protect those precious wild and beautiful open spaces which belong to us all.

Betsy Gaines Quammen is an American treasure!

So much more than just another book about the Bundys

The depth of research put into this book is unparalleled and the incredibly important story it tells should not be missed. This book is eloquently written, extremely well read, and ever entertaining.

Well told

Interesting dive in to the history of a notable family, and a chilling rationale for their actions. Foreshadows intention to self-fulfill prophecy.

Good detail in the story

Very good with regard to the land use history of BLM lands in the high desert region of the west. Lots of details in describing the various roles of individuals and other entities that have shaped the American West. Honest attempts to be journalistic but adds opinions supported by scientific facts which is appreciated.

Excellent telling of this tale of extremism

Sadly, much of the story of Mormonism runs parallel to the story of the Bundy men. The story is well researched and told from an objective point of view… inasmuch as that is even possible, given the extreme views of the Bundy family, and those of their ilk.

It would have been good to provide the storyteller with a pronunciation guide so that she could get the pronunciation correct for the uniquely Mormon Terminology necessary to tell the story.

A Let Down

It's written like the offspring of an owner's manual and a child's book report. I kept waiting for a lager point and none came. Read a few articles on Cliven Bundy and you can save yourself the time I wasted on this book. Also, the narrator sounds like a bad AI.

Biased and unresearched

The book is unbalanced. The author allows her bias and dislike for Mormons to drive her narrative. Any view point that suffers from hers is disregarded as uneducated or out right crazy. More than half the book is here critique of the past and not an analysis of the Western land conflict.

Biased garbage

Very biased opinion piece masquerading as a non fiction work. Not worth the time and effort.

Garbage

I was hoping for a non biased account of the situation with Mr. Bundy and western issues.

This is a bunch of liberal environmentalist propaganda. Very disappointing.