Comments on: Essential texts in Mormon Studies by non-Mormon authors

By: Jed

Jed — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 22:19:21 +0000

Outside of Shipps, Gordon, and Davies, the best work is found embedded within larger treatments. R. Laurence Moore (Religious Outsiders; Selling God) understands Mormons better than any outside scholar who has never written a book on Mormonism. Colleen McDannell (Material Christianity; Heaven: A History) writes remarkably composed prose for a non-Mormon living in SLC. Brooks Holifield (Theology in America) is a sound interpreter of Mormonism for evangelical audiences. Charles Cohen is an insider-outsider in the making.

By: BBELL

BBELL — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 18:49:39 +0000

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650209422,00.html

Glenn Beck appears to be currently active LDS

By: Bill MacKinnon

Bill MacKinnon — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 18:24:46 +0000

David (#40): Thanks for your keep words and the clarifications. For me Bigler’s background is an interesting one, especially in view of what he and how he writes. Descended either directly or indirectly from Henry Bigler, one of the Mormon Battalion vets who discovered gold at Coloma in 1848 as part of James Marshall’s construction crew, and Jacob Bigler, Bishop of Nephi and a man not uninvolved in the fall 1857 events surrounding MMM and possibly the Aiken Party carnage, both of which he writes about. I believe that he’s also related in some way to the Bigler brothers who were governors of Both California and Pennsylvania nearly-simultaneously during the late 1850s and hence is also connected to Lake Tahoe, which was known as Lake Bigler when it was part of western UT.

By: John Bryan

John Bryan — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:59:00 +0000

So far no mention of “The Burned-over District” by Whitney Cross. Is it too dated?

By: David

David — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:03:32 +0000

Bill: I think that we’re pretty much in agreement on Bigler’s place in Mormon historiography. Sorry for misleading you with vague language. I look forward to reading your article next month, just as I enjoyed your article in Dialogue on the Utah War.

By: Bill MacKinnon

Bill MacKinnon — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:32:23 +0000

David (#38): Glad to know that you didn’t mean to dismiss all non-academics publishing in the trade press, and by mentioning Juanita Brooks you’ve, of course, put your finger on one of the greatest non-academic writers of Mormon and Western history — whom I forgot. I appreciate the reminder. (In an article to emerge next month in “Journal of Mormon History” I’ve characterized T&S’s Ardis Parshall’s work as Brooks-like.) I’ view Bigler’s “Forgotten Kingdom” more as highly important than essential. As someone else pointed out above, it is one of the few, and is certainly the most recent, studies that covers the entire sweep of Utah’s territorial period, a very important time and place in Latter-day Saint history. It shouldn’t be ignored. As I think Nate pointed out, Bigler at times can come across as “difficult” for some (but not all) readers because of his keen appreciation of Brigham Young’s short suits. On the other hand, in the course of letting chips fall where they may, he has published more than anyone else (including in “Forgotten Kingdom”) about the rise of the LDS mission along Oregon Territory’s Samon River (Fort Limhi) and the federally-involved massacre there on 25 February 1858, the day Thomas L. Kane arrived in Salt Lake City.

By: David

David — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:10:17 +0000

Bill McKinnon (#21): I don’t intend to dismiss all works that are written by non-academics that publish in trade presses. Juanita Brooks was not an academic (although she was published by a university press) who’s contributions to western and Mormon history need to be dealt with by historians today. _The Mountain Meadows Massacre_ can still rightfully be considered an essential text in Mormon history, but I don’t think that Bigler’s _Forgotten Kingdom_ is anywhere near that designation. Perhaps you can explain why it should be considered as such?

But as Nate (#25) points out, half of my argument is negated as _Forgotten Kingdom_ is now available through a university press.

Also Nate (#26): I agree that Brooke provides some intriguing frameworks that can be used to study Mormon history. But that doesn’t mean that _The Refiner’s Fire_ is an essential text in Mormon Studies. I’m not aware of anyone writing in Mormon history, whether Mormon or not, that takes his hermeticism to Mormonism connection seriously, which is the crux of his argument.

By: Bill MacKinnon

Bill MacKinnon — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:20:16 +0000

Nate, Utah State U. Press must have brought out the paperback edition of Bigler’s “Forgotten Kingdom.”

By: Brad Kramer

Brad Kramer — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:50:42 +0000

It should be noted that Glen Beck is some kind of Mormon (current, former, cultural, I don’t really know) as well.

By: Brad Kramer

Brad Kramer — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:48:37 +0000

I don’t think his work is reasonable. I do think it is a fairer and more defensible treatment of Mormons than 86% of what gets said in the ‘naccle about Muslims and violence and 100% of what comes from Fox News or AM Radio. It is for that reason alone that I think most Mormons (ie those inclined to accept uncritically the anti-Muslim rantings Glen Beck and his ilk) should read it.