Leaders to Managers: The Fatal Shift
April 19, 2018Twenty-three years ago on this same occasion I gave the opening prayer in which I said: “We have met here today clothed in the black robes of a false priesthood … ” Many have asked…
DiaBLOGue
More on Kirtland | Milton V. Backman, Jr., A Profile of Latter-day Saints of Kirtland, Ohio, and Members of Zion’s Camp 1830-1839: Vital Statistics and Sources, and Anne B. Prusha, A History of Kirtland, Ohio
April 18, 2018For many, Kirtland is viewed as the genesis of Mormonism as a viable church and perhaps the best test case of Joseph Smith’s prophetic claims and personal integrity. As such, interest in the history of…
The Klan in Utah | Larry R. Gerlach, Blazing Crosses in Zion: The Ku Klux Klan in Utah
April 18, 2018For most of us, mention of the Ku Klux Klan conjures up visions of the Deep South—night riders in white robes, burning crosses, and, as the lyrics of “Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday’s jazz classic, state,…
Unprickley View of a Thorny Issue | Ann E. Weiss, God and Government, The Separation of Church and State
April 18, 2018This small (126 pages) book written for juveniles, is one person’s view of a thorny issue in America today. Mormons will be interested to read Ms. Weiss’s first three chapters discussing historical events leading up…
The New Mormon Poetry | Lewis Home, The seventh day
April 18, 2018A new Mormon poetry is beginning to emerge from the shadow of traditional, more bardic Mormon verse. Peeping about in the bright sun, blinking a bit and rubbing its eyes, it shows itself in poems…
Intimacy in a Three-Piece Suit | Victor L. Brown, Jr., Human Intimacy: Illusion & Reality
April 18, 2018What is this human intimacy, this condition that human beings seek “at every stage of life .. . as urgently as we seek food and drink . . . this need so powerful that we…
Rx With a Historical Slant | Robert T. Divett, Medicine and the Mormons: An Introduction to the History of Latter-day Saint Health Care
April 18, 2018It is easy for me to be enthusiastic about this relatively short, readable volume, which in many ways breaks new ground in Mormon historiography. It is a book for all fascinated with Mormon health attitudes…
Study in Mutual Respect | Spencer J. Palmer, ed., Mormons and Muslims: Spiritual Foundations and Modern Manifestations
April 18, 2018It may well be true, as Arnold H. Green, professor of Near Eastern history at American University (Cairo), pointed out at a conference devoted to Mormons and Muslims in October 1981, that Protestants like to…
Moving Swiftly Upon the Waters | Conway B. Sonne, Saints on the Seas: A Maritime History of Mormon Migration 1830-1890
April 18, 2018After the Latter-day Saints began building Zion in the Great Basin it was natural to celebrate crossing the plains as pioneers. Succeeding generations of land lubbers have been less inclined to remember a similarly pivotal…
Brief Notices
April 18, 2018In the fall 1983 column, we surmised that Merlo Pusey’s history of the George A. Smiths represented, by virtue of its flavor, a respectable and even successful attempt at “family-authorized” biography. Subsequently, a missive from…