A Question of Sovereignties: James Buchanan, Utah Territory, & the Onset of a Federal West

Join LancasterHistory.org on Thursday, November 9th as we welcome historian and author Brent M. Rogers, Ph.D. for a talk on A Question of Sovereignties: James Buchanan, Utah Territory, and the Onset of a Federal West. Rogers will examine the difficult challenges faced by President Buchanan’s administration in dealing with Territorial Governor Brigham Young as well as with the settlers of the Utah Territory.

Brent Rogers, Ph.D., Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsBrent M. Rogers, Ph.D. is the associate managing historian for The Joseph Smith Papers. He earned a BA with honors in history from San Diego State University, an MA in public history from California State University, Sacramento, and a Ph.D. with emphasis in nineteenth-century United States history from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Rogers is the author of Unpopular Sovereignty: Mormons and the Federal Management of Early Utah Territory (University of Nebraska Press in 2017) and several articles including “A ‘distinction between Mormons and Americans’: Mormon Indian Missionaries, Federal Indian Policy, and the Utah War,” Utah Historical Quarterly (Fall 2014), which won the Western History Association’s 2015 Arrington-Prucha Prize for Best Article on the History of Religion in the West. Rogers has also co-edited several volumes of the Joseph Smith Papers including Journals Volume 3: May 1843- June 1844 (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2015).

Event Information: This event takes place in Ryder Hall at LancasterHistory.org. A speaker’s reception begins at 4pm, followed by the lecture at 4:30pm. The event is free and open to the public.