notthemarimba | (Reply)

From:

It's mostly about socialism and socialist cultural institutions in Utah in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Socialist candidates were very successful in certain municipalities for a while and there was a growing sense that they were going to be the new powerhouse political party, not just in Utah but across the country. In Utah, though, the socialist party was very dependent on Mormons who felt that socialism was very compatible with the church's teachings (esp. those who had been around/had a good knowledge of the church's brief experiments with communal living). However, as part of the church's general effort to move back into "mainstream" society and the federal government's good graces, it began actively discouraging members from participating in the socialist party, which made its numbers dwindle significantly, and eventually the party just kind of died out here.