Popular history found expression over the years in some publications designed to promote Utah, such as early works by S. A. Kenner, George E. Blair, George Wharton James, and others. Many households obtained their views of Utah and Mormon history from lesson pamphlets published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

Increasingly professional influences in the study of Utah's history came at about the time of World War I when a group of young Utah men went off to graduate schools for advanced degrees in history. Included in this first generation were Levi Edgar Young, Andrew Love Neff, William J. Snow, Leland H. Creer, and Joel E. Ricks, among others. Most went to the University of California at Berkeley, worked in the Bancroft Library, and studied under Herbert E. Bolton. Upon completion of their doctorate degrees, they returned to Utah and taught college courses in Utah history, conducted seminars, and sometimes wrote. Their influences were felt mainly in the classroom and in public lectures: Young, Neff, and Creer taught at the University of Utah, William J. Snow at Brigham Young University, and Joel E. Ricks at Utah State Agricultural College in Logan.

The writing of school textbooks provided a continuing challenge to historians who would attempt a broad coverage. Following Whitney's example, Levi Edgar Young wrote The Founding of Utah (1923), breaking new ground with attention to the pre-1847 period. He wrote social history for his readers; his accounts of pioneer life are still useful. The work showed a refreshing breadth of interest. John Henry Evans produced The Story of Utah (1933). He began the story in 1847 and carried it to 1932. He treated political and judicial themes central to Utah history, and enlarged his treatment of social, economic and cultural subjects. The scope and presentation of material is impressive. Soon Marguerite Cameron produced This is the Place (1939), written "primarily for youth in our schools" as well as "fireside reading." Whatever its success in the schools, it was soon succeeded by Milton R. Hunter's Utah In Her Western Setting (1943), later revised as The Utah Story (1960