Railroading Religion: Mormons, Tourists, and the Corporate Spirit of the West​

David Walker is associate professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Walker’s work focuses on intersections of religion, settlement policy, technology, and popular culture in the long nineteenth century. His recent publications treat ritual innovations in spiritualism and stage magic; and railroad companies’ influence on popular understandings of Mormonism. He is the author of Railroading Religion: Mormons, Tourists, and the Corporate Spirit of the West (University of North Carolina Press, 2019).

Sasha Coles is a PhD Candidate in History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation traces the history of silk production in nineteenth-century Utah. For the 2019-2020 academic year, she is the in-residence Tanner Humanities Center Fellow in Latter-day Saints Studies at the University of Utah.