Mormon History
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Recent papers in Mormon History
With two new publications, the Museum of Mormon History in Mexico has firmly established itself as a leading venue for the production of Mormon history in Mexico. The Spanish translation and English commentary on Part 1 of F. LaMond... more
Mormon Women’s History: Beyond Biography demonstrates that the history and experience of Mormon women is central to the history of the Church and to histories of American religion, politics, and culture. Yet the study of Mormon women has... more
Presented at the 2016 Mormon History Association Meeting in Snowbird, Utah
A list of members from the Minute Book of the Nauvoo Relief Society linked with profiles found on the Church Historians Press book The First Fifty Years of Relief: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women's History. Members listed were... more
After describing four competing interpretations of the prophetic claims of Joseph Smith, this paper surveys his life in order to place his various scriptures, teachings, and practices in context.
This article follows James Strang's integration of Mormon esotericism (i.e. temple rites) into his brand of Mormonism in the late 1840s, demonstrating influences of and responses to Joseph Smith's Council of Fifty.
As most US servicemen drafted into the military during World War I headed east across the Atlantic bound for Europe, the men of the 31st Infantry boarded ships in San Francisco and sailed west across the Pacific, landing in Vladivostok in... more
A list of members from the Minute Book of the Nauvoo Relief Society linked with profiles found on the Church Historians Press book The First Fifty Years of Relief: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women's History. Percent of Members... more
While the Book of Mormon recounts a variety of miracles, two miraculous events have special significance, the illuminated night and associated signs and wonders and the appearance of a new star in Mesoamerica previous to the birth of... more
This paper discusses a little-known chapter in the history of southern Utah. The first organized expedition south of Utah Valley, with a view to colonize what became known as the "Mormon Corridor" — roughly the area traversed by US... more
In September, 1857, one of the worst tragedies in the history of the Westward Expansion took place at Mountain Meadows in southwest Utah Territory. John D. Lee, on the orders of his leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day... more
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is known for its doctrine of exaltation: the belief that human beings can become gods who create and reign over their own worlds, even as God the Father has done with this world. The Church... more
What did Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, Joseph F. Smith, George Q. Cannon, and seventeen other early LDS leaders teach about building Zion that we today have forgotten? Quite a bit, it turns out! Chapter... more
Joseph Smith died before the practice of sealings had been wholly unfolded and implemented. In particular, what Brian Hales calls the “vertical” sealing of parents to children (as opposed to the “horizontal” sealing of men and women as... more
With the publication of its first book, the Museum of Mormon History in Mexico is helping to initiate an era in which international Mormon history is produced and published in local languages by local people. Fernanco R. Gómez Páez,... more
Terryl L. Givens, professor of English at the University of Richmond, Virginia, enters the stormy field of Book of Mormon studies with an examination of why generations of believers and skeptics have taken the Book of Mormon seriously.... more
A list of members from the Minute Book of the Nauvoo Relief Society linked with profiles found on the Church Historians Press book The First Fifty Years of Relief: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women's History. A 2017 Project for the... more
2021 Best Book Award, John Whitmer Historical Association. Finalist for Best Book in "Excellence in the Study of Religion, Textual Studies" by the American Academy of Religion. Finalist for Best Book in Religious Non-Fiction, the... more
This article documents one strain of Mormon thought concerning the Woman of Endor narrative in 1 Samuel 28, in which the woman was interpreted as a prophetess enabled to raise the dead through her spiritual gifts. Church leaders... more
Vol. 5: Studies in the Book of Abraham Series. Provo, Utah: BYU
Mormon’s Chronological Summary of the Period from the 19th Regnal Year of the Reign of MosiahI to the Coming of the Limhites and Mormon’s Synopsis of the Book of Mormon Prophetic Calendar A small scrap of paper entitled “Caractors” (also... more
Microhistory of the interactions between a Kentucky folk magic practitioner, English astrologers and occultists, and a young English scryer in the new environment of pioneer Mormon Utah. My capstone research project for my undergraduate... more
An assessment of the implications of entheogenic research for understanding the origins of religion. The Table of contents with links to 12 articles that examine entheogenic bases of prehistorical, historical and world religions.
The history of Mormonism in Mexico reached a new landmark early in 1997 when Colonia Industrial, a United Order community founded by Margarito Bautista Valencia, achieved, its fiftieth successful year. Second, third, and fourth... more
Before he perceived himself as a prophet, Joseph Smith was deeply involved in folk magic, particularly as a treasure seeker. Between 1823 and 1827, however, there was a shift in Joseph Smith’s divining, the type of treasure he sought, and... more
The idea of religious freedom was one of the hallmarks of early nineteenth-century America, but it was not truly universal. Despite denominational differences, mainstream white evangelical Protestants formed a body of unified believers... more
Nearly two centuries ago the earliest Mormon scripture, the first half of the 'abridged' account of the Book of Mormon's narrator Mormon was stolen, never to be seen again. Consequently, within the Latter-day Saint community the situation... more
A frequently told story in Church history concerns the call of Artemus Millet to work on the Kirtland Temple. With variations here and there, historians have related the story as follows: Joseph Smith, in the company of other brethren, is... more
This article examines the role of the Mormon Church in the fight against the Equal Rights Amendment during the 1970s. While the historiography of the ERA has largely concentrated on the role of Phyllis Schlafly and Southern... more