Still The Right Place

In 1996, Utah celebrated its one hundredth year of statehood. In 1992, anticipating that important centennial, new welcome signs appeared along the state’s highways. The signs read “Utah, Still the Right Place,” and they provided the inspiration for the title of this book.

Still the Right Place deals with the last half of Utah’s first century of statehood. Each of its seven chapters covers the administration of one of the state’s governors, beginning at the end of World War II while Herbert B. Maw was governor and ending in 1995 during Mike Leavitt’s first term. Each chapter covers a variety of topics, including politics, economic development, education, law and order, the environment, health and medicine, and the way Utah responded to and was influenced by national events. Change is discussed against the background of the transformations taking place on the larger American stage. Much of the state’s economic well-being following World War II depended on employment provided by defense, federal government, and large firms with headquarters outside the state. During the next half-century, however, employment patterns changed: Manufacturing became more diverse, tourism became steadily more significant, Utah became home base for a number of major employers, and service-oriented industries boomed. Beginning in the 1970s, high-tech manufacturing became a kind of “Cinderella” industry for the state, and some Utah firms became world leaders. As American attitudes toward the role of women changed, so did the attitudes of many Utahns. By the end of the century, women made up nearly 44 percent of the total workforce. Even though the Utah legislature rejected the Equal Rights Amendment, opportunities for women in the professions, and the general acceptance of gender equality, were as far along in Utah as in most other places. In addition, the book includes three significant and extensive appendices. One considers Utah’s ethnic minorities and the quest for a more pluralistic society, another discusses Utah and the arts during this half-century, and the third deals with the state’s numerous religions.