Embroideries
April 19, 2018In this small room
the bishop sits like God
Himself
broad farmer face upon
DiaBLOGue
Single Cursedness: An Overview of LDS Authorities’ Statements About Unmarried People
April 19, 2018Being married is one of the most important ideas within Mormon culture, emphasized almost to the exclusion of other states of being. Much like the moon that is visible only when reflecting the sun’s light,…
Ten Years in Camelot: A Personal Memoir
April 19, 2018Between 1972 and 1982 I was part of the team of historians located in the Church Office Building under the direction of Leonard J. Arrington. It was a golden decade—a brief period of excitement and…
Swarming Progeny of the Restoration | Steven L. Shields, Divergent Paths of the Restoration: A History of the Latter Day Saint Movement
April 19, 2018Did you know that James Brighouse has been, among others, Adam, Enoch, Michael, George Washington, and Joseph Smith? Did you know that Max E. Powers was in attendance at the grand council in heaven before…
Saints You Can Sink Your Teeth Into | William G. Hartley, Kindred Saints: The Mormon Immigrant Heritage of Alvin and Kathryn Christensen
April 19, 2018With us, someone else’s genealogy ranks right up there with reading the tele phone directory or watching someone else’s home movies. Most Mormon family histories are about as much fun as funerals. Thus, it was…
Career of a Counter-Prophet | C. LeRoy Anderson, For Christ Will Come Tomorrow: The Saga of The Morrisites
April 19, 2018This handsome volume immediately establishes itself as the definitive work on the Morrisite movement within Mormonism. A complete study of Joseph Morris and his followers has long been needed and LeRoy Anderson has filled the…
An RLDS Leader | Larry E. Hunt, F. M. Smith: Saint as Reformer 1874-1946
April 19, 2018Dialogue 16.4 (Winter 1983): 154
Few scholars have studied the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and fewer still have studied its leaders.
The Old Young Years | Richard F. Palmer and Karl D. Butler, Brigham Young: The New York Years
April 19, 2018There is a distinct advantage in being a New Yorker when tracking one down in your own backyard. Richard Palmer’s second great-grandfather, Noah Palmer, came to Palmyra in 1810 and owned land adjacent to the…
When Mormons Had Horns | Gary L. Bunker and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Graphic Image, 1834-1914: Cartoons, Caricatures, and Illustrations
April 19, 2018After reading The Mormon Graphic Image, 1834-1914, you will understand why Mormons once had horns. The vestigial appendages were a remnant of cartoonists’ repeated use of the symbol to associate polygamy with satyr-like lust. The…
Accolades for Good Wives | Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750
April 19, 2018I have written book reviews on a regular basis for almost a decade. Most of them have been in the field of Mormon/ Utah history, although I consistently try to disclaim my expertise in the…