A review of Joseph W. Geisner, ed., Writing Mormon History: Historians and Their Books (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2020). Writing Mormon History, edited by Joseph W. Geisner, is a collection of essays by prominent historians of Mormonism about the … Continue reading
Review of Jedediah S. Rogers and Matthew C. Godfrey, The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden: Essays on Mormon Environmental History (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019). “Mormon environmental history” may sound like an odd or … Continue reading
Stapley, Jonathan A. The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018. 188 pp. ISBN 9780190844431. Best Mormon History Book of 2018 Jonathan A. Stapley’s The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology reveals … Continue reading
Pioneer journals speak often of hot springs near the Great Salt Lake. To indigenous peoples these sacred waters bubbling from the earth effected miracle cures. Pioneers, too, believed pungent sulfur springs had medicinal benefits. Bathers flocked to hot springs resorts … Continue reading
Dear members and friends of the Mormon History Association: Due to recent requests, we have extended the deadline for proposals for the 2017 MHA conference to be held in the St. Louis, Missouri metro area, to 1 November 2016. Please … Continue reading
In August–November 1838, Mormons and their “Gentile” Missourian neighbors clashed in the Mormon War of 1838. At issue were not only religious differences, but also basic civil liberties. Missourians had expelled the theocratic, bloc-voting Mormons from county after county, and … Continue reading
Most modern Mormons understand the “gift of tongues” as the ability to quickly learn a foreign language in the Missionary Training Center. But early Latter-day Saints had a very different concept of tongues. John Gunnison, an astute student of Mormon culture, nicely summarized the … Continue reading
Last week historian Andrea Radke-Moss made headlines with the revelation that Missouri ruffians raped Eliza R. Snow during the 1838 Mormon War. Snow was a beloved “founding mother” of Mormonism and went on to become one of the longest-serving Relief … Continue reading
Content warning: This post discusses the dramatic portion of the early temple endowment. In an 1863 letter to Brigham Young, the great Mormon hymn-writer W. W. Phelps enumerated the callings he had received from Joseph Smith. One in particular stands … Continue reading
Black, White, and Mormon: A Conference on the Evolving Status of Black Saints within the Mormon Fold October 8–9, 2015 In December 2013, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a new essay on Race and the Priesthood on its … Continue reading