The first volume includes key extracts from Morgan's contribution to the WPA guide to Utah (1941), which remains an excellent introduction to the complex history of the Beehive State. It further provides a new historiographic introduction to his seminal work "The State of Deseret "and presents important previously unpublished works on the Kingdom of God, the Deseret Alphabet, and the origins of the infamous Danite society.
Dale L. Morgan (1914–1971) remains one of the most respected historians of the American West—and his broad and influential career one of the least understood. Among today’s scholars his reputation rests largely on his studies of the fur trade and overland trails, yet throughout his life, Morgan’s perennial goal was to complete a history of the Latter Day Saints. In this volume—the second of a two-part set—Morgan’s writings on the Mormons finally receive the attention and analysis they merit. Dale Morgan on the Mormons is a far-reaching compilation of the historian’s published and unpublished writings. Edited and annotated by Morgan scholar Richard L. Saunders, the collection includes not only essays but also book reviews and bibliographic studies, many published here for the first time. At the heart of this second volume is a newly corrected presentation of Morgan’s unfinished magnum opus, “The Mormons.” Also included are a number of forgotten treasures, including Morgan’s still-definitive article on the Emmett Company, which headed west from Nauvoo in 1844 as the first party of westering Latter Day Saints; his privately distributed bibliography of the lesser Mormon churches; and the historian’s last published reflections on the Mormon experience. Throughout, Saunders provides informative introductions that place each of the writings or groups of writings into biographical and historical context.
The first volume includes key extracts from Morgan's contribution to the WPA guide to Utah (1941), which remains an excellent introduction to the complex history of the Beehive State. It further provides a new historiographic introduction to his seminal work "The State of Deseret "and presents important previously unpublished works on the Kingdom of God, the Deseret Alphabet, and the origins of the infamous Danite society.
Explaining Mormonism is a thoughtful and wide-ranging discussion of the Mormon belief system. Unlike previous surveys of Latter-day Saint beliefs, Explaining Mormonism not only outlines Mormon doctrines but provides an in-depth exploration of some of their most distinctive doctrines regarding the nature of God, the purpose of life, the value of suffering, and even human sexuality. The author himself is a self-described “skeptic both by nature and by nurture,” who nevertheless converted to Mormonism as a young man. He takes the reader on an exciting journey through one of the world’s most controversial and perplexing religions. For Latter-day Saint readers, Explaining Mormonism will aid in strengthening their faith through its in-depth examination of the compelling logic behind the Mormon world view. For the skeptical outsider, it situates Mormon beliefs in a broad context of history, theology, philosophy, and social science and demonstrates Mormonism’s ability to provide bold and compelling answers to the most fundamental questions of human existence. And for the serious student of Mormonism, it furnishes insights that only an insider can bring to some of the Latter-day Saints’ most peculiar teachings.
Mormonism arose in early 19th century New York and has fired the imaginations of its devotees, critics, and students ever since. Some intellectuals and academics read Mormonism as the product of economic change wrought by the Erie Canal in the Burned-over District of western New York State and upper north-eastern Ohio. Others read Mormonism as an authoritarian reaction to Jacksonian democracy. Finally, some, including most of those who became Mormons in the early 19th century and most of those who are believing Mormons today, read Mormonism as the intervention of God in human history. This book engages with Mormon Studies from its beginnings in the early nineteenth century to the end of the 20th century. It covers those who fought over Mormonism's truth or falsity, on those who tried to understand Mormonism as a religious and sociological phenomenon, and on those who explored the history of Mormonism from a more dispassionate perspective. It concludes with an exploration of the culture war that erupted as Mormon Studies professionalized particularly after the 1960s.
The Utah War—an unprecedented armed confrontation between Mormon-controlled Utah Territory and the U.S. government—was the most extensive American military action between the U.S.-Mexican and Civil Wars. Drawing on author-editor William P. MacKinnon’s half-century of research and a wealth of carefully selected new material, At Sword’s Point presents the first full history of the conflict through the voices of participants—leaders, soldiers, and civilians from both sides. MacKinnon’s lively narrative, continued in this second volume, links and explains these firsthand accounts to produce the most detailed, in-depth, and balanced view of the war to date. At Sword’s Point, Part 2 carries the story of the Utah War from the end of 1857 to the conclusion of hostilities in June 1858, when Brigham Young was replaced as territorial governor and almost one-third of the U.S. Army occupied Utah. Through the testimony of Mormon and federal leaders, combatants, emissaries, and onlookers, this second volume describes the war’s final months and uneasy resolution. President James Buchanan and his secretary of war, John B. Floyd, worked to break a political-military stalemate in Utah, while Mormon leaders prepared defensive and aggressive countermeasures ranging from an attack on Forts Bridger and Laramie to the “Sebastopol Strategy” of evacuating and torching Salt Lake City and sending 30,000 Mormon refugees on a mass exodus and fighting retreat toward Mexican Sonora. Thomas L. Kane, self-appointed intermediary and Philadelphia humanitarian, sought a peaceful conclusion to the conflict, which ended with the arrival in Utah of President Buchanan’s two official peace commissioners, the president’s blanket pardon for Utah’s population, and the army’s peaceful march into the Salt Lake Valley. MacKinnon’s narrative weaves a panoramic yet intimate view of a turning point in western, Mormon, and American history far bloodier than previously understood. With its sophisticated documentary analysis and insight, this work will stand as the definitive history of the complex, consequential, and still-debated Utah War.
The first volume includes key extracts from Morgan's contribution to the WPA guide to Utah (1941), which remains an excellent introduction to the complex history of the Beehive State. It further provides a new historiographic introduction to his seminal work "The State of Deseret "and presents important previously unpublished works on the Kingdom of God, the Deseret Alphabet, and the origins of the infamous Danite society.
Winner of the Special Book Award from the John Whitmer Historical Association Excavating Mormon Pasts assembles sixteen knowledgeable scholars from both LDS and the Community of Christ traditions who have long participated skillfully in this dialogue. It presents their insightful and sometimes incisive surveys of where the New Mormon History has come from and which fields remain unexplored. It is both a vital reference work and a stimulating picture of the New Mormon History in the early twenty-first century.
The first paperback edition of the classic biography of the founder of the Mormon church, this book attempts to answer the questions that continue to surround Joseph Smith. Was he a genuine prophet, or a gifted fabulist who became enthralled by the products of his imagination and ended up being martyred for them? 24 pages of photos. Map.
