As you notice, I am spending more time on the computer today than I ought. Here is my take.

I don’t think that the Mormon Experience should be on the list. It is a good intro, but I think that is its best claim to fame. For example, unlike Bushman’s treatment of Joseph’s early life it cannot claim to be the best treatment of a critical period. In its place I would put Arrington’s Great Basin Kingdom.

Quinn’s book is a marvelous, bubbling cauldron of facts on a critical issue. His interpretive framework is pretty problematic, but I would keep the book on the list anyway.

McMurrin is overrated in my view. The problem is that he addresses a critical issue — the relationship between Mormonism and philosophical theology — and there is not much else out there. I would probably put down B.H. Robert’s work — Mormon Doctrine of Diety, Seventies’ Course in Theology, or The Truth, The Way, The Life. McMurrin’s work is essentially parasitic on Roberts’. McMurrin has a better grasp of philosophical theology. However, all of his key insights come from the work of Roberts.

I think that you also need to include two works by Nibley. First, An Approach to the Book of Mormon, which is basically the fountainhead of modern scholarlly discussions (critical and apologetic) of the Book of Mormon. Second, The World and the Prophets, which is the fullest (and to date most influential) statement of the Adolph Von Harnack view of the apostacy, namely that it was a process of “Hellenizing” the Gospel. This paradigm, has I think, exerted a tremendous influence on underlying Mormon attitudes toward philosophy and intellectual inquiry.

Brodie’s work is mainly of historical interest, and I probably wouldn’t include it on the short, short list. Her research was derivitive to that of Dale Morgan, and her interpretive methodology was hopelessly flawed. On the otherhand, she is arguably the spark that set off the flame of New Mormon History. (Although I would probably give honors here to Arrington’s Great Basin Kingdom.

Runners up:

Juanita Brooks, Moutain Meadows Massacre
Tom Alexander, Mormonism in Transition (best treatment of the critical issue of Mormon retrenchment with American culture)

Personal Favorites:
Firmage & Mangrum, Zion in the Courts
Sarah Barringer Gordon, The Mormon Question

As for Roberts vs. McMurrin, I found McMurrin much more lucid. He also makes a more extensive effort to accurately situate Mormonism within the philosophical and theological traditions. I’ll have to get out my copy of Truth, Way, and Life to see if I agree that all of McMurrin’s good insights come from Roberts.

One book that I enjoyed, that I hear virtually nothing about, is The Angel and the Beehive, a sociological study by Armand Mauss. Why hasn’t this book had more impact? Not scholarly enough?

I also think that most everyone reads
England’s essay, Why the Church is as True as the Gospel, and
Bushman’s essay, The Colonization of the Mormon Mind

The Great Angel, by Margaret Barker

I confess that I haven’t yet read it. Anyone able to say whether its as good as that, or not?

I’d also say that Quinn’s Magic is overrated. I think that overall I find Brooke far more interesting, although it too is problematic. The problem once again though is that Quinn touches on things Brooke doesn’t. Further nothing else has really been written on the topic in a comprehensive way. It is once again the advantage of being the greatest among few. I find Quinn’s work extremely important because of the subject matter but simultaneously dangerous because of how easy it is to misread uncautiously. In a way I view the book much like some of Nibley’s work on the Book of Mormon. It is very important to have blazed the trail, but I’d not consider Nibley’s Deseret Books original publications without severe critical considerations.

One of my favorites that has been left out is LaSueur’s The 1838 War in Missouri. (Or a title to that effect) It’s a very different perspective than most know. While some will be troubled by it I personally was relieved to hear the Mormons fought back.

Richard Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism
Thomas Alexander, Mormonism in Transition
Terryl Givens, By the Hand of Mormon
Philip Barlow, Mormons and the Bible
Grant Underwood, The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism

Plus a few essays:

Alexander, “The Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine”
Nibley, “The Passing of the Church” and “Work We Must, But the Lunch is Free”
England, “Why the Church is as True as the Gospel” and “What Covenant Will God Receive in the Desert?”

I’d probably say LaSueur’s Missouri war, Quinn’s Magic World View, Nibley’s Approaching Zion, Bushman, and then Sorenson. But that’s if I was listing five.

Of course realistically most Mormons haven’t read any of them including Nibley’s.

Maybe we could have a contest once we make this feature permanent. The first person to read the whole list gets to be King for a day, or something.

I’ve asked for Ostler for Christmas, but I’m not expecting anything. My wife is deeply skeptical of my water-skeeter philosophizing; she points out that it’s pretty silly of me to try to comprehend the world when I still haven’t done my hometeaching.

The author, Armand Mauss, is a sociologist. The subtitle is “The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation” and it is essentially about the tension during last half of the 20th century between the distinctive, prophetic, and revolutionary aspects of Mormonism (the Angel) and its more institutional, conservative aspects (the Beehive). It has interesting chapters on the supposed power struggle between JR Clark and DO McKay, and how that played on in the ensuing decades as “Clark-men” ascended in Church leadership (HB Lee, Jos. Field. Smith, BR McConkie). It also contains interesting surveys of Church members in various settings (San Francisco, Wasatch Front) in an attempt to assess cultural and religious attitutes among the Saints.

Its fun because it is gossipy about the very recent past and tells a great human story of how the church got to where it is as an institution; but the same tone makes me a bit skeptical of its scholarly bona fides.

Also, it occurs to me that I put nothing about polygamy on my list. If plural marriage is your thing, essential texts include:

Sarah Gordon, The Mormon Question
Carmon Hardy, Solemn Covenant
Sterling Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy

I agree with Nate and Clark that McMurrin’s book is over-rated. His grasp of philosophical theology is merely conventional, though perhaps that’s what is needed in a basic book.

I’m surprised not to see more people putting Givens’s and Barlow’s books on their lists. But then I don’t have a list myself, so who am I to complain.

It’s really good stuff. I’ll probably discuss some time at length in a post.