In this study Ethan R. Yorgason foregrounds the concept of region and traces the conformist-conservative trajectory that arose from intense moral and ideological clashes between Mormons and non-Mormons from 1880 to 1920. Non-Mormons worried that Mormons would establish an un-American society in the West, while Mormons feared for the very existence of their church. An example of the new regional geography, Yorgason's work treats culture as an arena of political struggle.
Transformation of the Mormon Culture Region charts the cultural contradictions of both Mormons and non-Mormons in the region and shows how they were ultimately resolved by a gradual shift toward Victorian gender relations, individualist economics, and national identification. Mormons and non-Mormons together constructed a regime of effective coexistence while retaining regional distinctiveness.