MARK ASHURST-MCGEE {ashurstmcgee@gmail.com} is a Senior Historian in the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an Affiliated Research Professor in the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. He serves as the Senior Research and Review Editor for the Joseph Smith Papers Project, where he specializes in document analysis and documentary editing methodology. He holds a PhD in history from Arizona State University and has trained at the Institute for the Editing of Historical Documents sponsored by the National Archives. He is a coeditor of Foundational Texts of Mormonism: Examining Major Early Sources (Oxford University Press, 2018), Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith's Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity (University of Utah Press, 2020), and several volumes of the Joseph Smith Papers. He is also the author of several articles on Joseph Smith and early Mormon history published in scholarly journals and other venues.
Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, per... more Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personally wrote, dictated, or commissioned thousands of documents. Among these are several highly significant sources that scholars have used over and over again in their attempts to reconstruct the founding era of Mormonism, usually by focusing solely on content, without a deep appreciation for how and why a document was produced. This book offers case studies of the sources most often used by historians of the early Mormon experience. Each chapter takes a particular document as its primary subject, considering the production of a document as an historical event in itself, with its own background, purpose, circumstances, and consequences. The documents are examined not merely as sources of information but as artifacts that reflect aspects of the general culture and particular circumstances in which they were created. This book will help historians working in the founding era of Mormonism gain a more solid grounding in the period's documentary record by supplying important information on major primary sources.
which Catholicism condemned (58). Miller even notes that âclergy in the field seemed to mirror th... more which Catholicism condemned (58). Miller even notes that âclergy in the field seemed to mirror the attitudes of their home denominationsâ (56). It seems, therefore, that while ecumenism is a logical expectation flowing from Millerâs model of religious space, his evidence challenges these expectations. Similarly, his claims for the transformative influence of the Civil War on American religion remain suggestive. Ecumenism as well as the democratic equality of camp religion, he admits, quickly crumbed after 1865 (150). Wartime exigencies, as students of war recognize, often create temporary solutions that are abandoned once the moment passes. Postbellum America certainly, as Miller asserts, âcontained vestiges of the chaos of the wartime spiritual worldâ (155). He needed, however, more evidence to establish firmly that point. In Godâs Presence is a mixed bag. Millerâs extensive archival research uncovered a number of interesting figures and examples of wartime religion. But his model oversimplifies nineteenth-century religion in America.
Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, per... more Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personally wrote, dictated, or commissioned thousands of documents. Among these are several highly significant sources that scholars have used over and over again in their attempts to reconstruct the founding era of Mormonism, usually by focusing solely on content, without a deep appreciation for how and why a document was produced. This book offers case studies of the sources most often used by historians of the early Mormon experience. Each chapter takes a particular document as its primary subject, considering the production of a document as an historical event in itself, with its own background, purpose, circumstances, and consequences. The documents are examined not merely as sources of information but as artifacts that reflect aspects of the general culture and particular circumstances in which they were created. This book will help historians working in the founding era of Mormonism ...
Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, per... more Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personally wrote, dictated, or commissioned thousands of documents. Among these are several highly significant sources that scholars have used over and over again in their attempts to reconstruct the founding era of Mormonism, usually by focusing solely on content, without a deep appreciation for how and why a document was produced. This book offers case studies of the sources most often used by historians of the early Mormon experience. Each chapter takes a particular document as its primary subject, considering the production of a document as an historical event in itself, with its own background, purpose, circumstances, and consequences. The documents are examined not merely as sources of information but as artifacts that reflect aspects of the general culture and particular circumstances in which they were created. This book will help historians working in the founding era of Mormonism gain a more solid grounding in the period's documentary record by supplying important information on major primary sources.
which Catholicism condemned (58). Miller even notes that âclergy in the field seemed to mirror th... more which Catholicism condemned (58). Miller even notes that âclergy in the field seemed to mirror the attitudes of their home denominationsâ (56). It seems, therefore, that while ecumenism is a logical expectation flowing from Millerâs model of religious space, his evidence challenges these expectations. Similarly, his claims for the transformative influence of the Civil War on American religion remain suggestive. Ecumenism as well as the democratic equality of camp religion, he admits, quickly crumbed after 1865 (150). Wartime exigencies, as students of war recognize, often create temporary solutions that are abandoned once the moment passes. Postbellum America certainly, as Miller asserts, âcontained vestiges of the chaos of the wartime spiritual worldâ (155). He needed, however, more evidence to establish firmly that point. In Godâs Presence is a mixed bag. Millerâs extensive archival research uncovered a number of interesting figures and examples of wartime religion. But his model oversimplifies nineteenth-century religion in America.
Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, per... more Joseph Smith, founding prophet and martyr of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personally wrote, dictated, or commissioned thousands of documents. Among these are several highly significant sources that scholars have used over and over again in their attempts to reconstruct the founding era of Mormonism, usually by focusing solely on content, without a deep appreciation for how and why a document was produced. This book offers case studies of the sources most often used by historians of the early Mormon experience. Each chapter takes a particular document as its primary subject, considering the production of a document as an historical event in itself, with its own background, purpose, circumstances, and consequences. The documents are examined not merely as sources of information but as artifacts that reflect aspects of the general culture and particular circumstances in which they were created. This book will help historians working in the founding era of Mormonism ...
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