The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky Mountains to California (Summarized Edition)

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The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky Mountains to California condenses Sir Richard Francis Burton's 1860 Overland journey into a keen ethnographic and geographical survey. From the Missouri frontier through Salt Lake City to California, he records terrain, resources, stage logistics, and the Great Basin's political economy. His even-toned account of the Latter-day Saints - polygamy, governance under Brigham Young, ritual, settlement - sits beside sketches of Indigenous communities, all rendered in precise prose with itineraries, tables, and comparative notes, and situates his travelogue within the pre-Civil War transcontinental moment. A soldier-linguist and later translator of the Arabian Nights, Burton carried to the American West the comparative method refined in India and on his clandestine Mecca pilgrimage. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he gathered dialects, myths, and measurements, reading Mormon Utah as a field laboratory and as a test of Victorian debates about new religious orders, overland communication, and imperial commerce. This volume will reward historians of religion and the American West, students of travel writing, and general readers seeking pre-railroad Western textures. Its skeptical balance, vivid scenes, and documentary rigor make it an essential primary source and a bracing counterpoint to later, more anecdotal narratives. Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable¿distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.

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