Richard D. Poll
RICHARD D. POLL was a professor of history at Brigham Young University for twenty-two years and vice president of Western Illinois University for five. He wrote History and Faith: Reflections of a Mormon Historian. He died in 199
A Kingdom to Come | Klaus J. Hansen, Quest for Empire: The Political Kingdom of God and the Council of Fifty in Mormon History
Articles/Essays – Volume 02, No. 3
In January, 1863, when Union fortunes were low in the Civil War, the governor of the self-proclaimed State of Deseret (Utah) sent these words to the legislature of that quasi-government: This body of men will…
Read moreWhat the Church Means to People Like Me
Articles/Essays – Volume 02, No. 4
A natural reaction to my title—since this is not a testimony meeting in which each speaker is his own subject—might be, “Who cares?” For who in this congregation, with the possible exception of my brother,…
Read moreJoseph Smith’s Presidential Platform: Joseph Smith and the Presidency, 1844
Articles/Essays – Volume 03, No. 3
At a meeting in the mayor’s office in Nauvoo, Illinois, on January 29, 1844, it was moved and voted unanimously that “we will have an independent electoral ticket, and that Joseph Smith be a candidate…
Read moreGod and Man in History
Articles/Essays – Volume 07, No. 1
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sees both God and man in a temporal, that i§^ historical,’ context, but it has developed no authoritative, systematic statement of the philosophical implications of historical relationships. It has no official philosophy of history. What follows, therefore, are simply reflections on some problems which relate to the religious affirmations of the L.D.S. people and a tentative approach to my personal philosophy of history.
Read moreApostle Extraordinary: Hugh B. Brown (1883-1975)
Articles/Essays – Volume 10, No. 1
When Elder Hugh B. Brown (the B also stands for Brown) passed from this stage of his eternal existence on December 2, 1975, the Church lost a remarkable leader. For a generation of Latter-day Saints…
Read moreState-of-the-Art Mormon History | Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints
Articles/Essays – Volume 12, No. 2
For years Latter-day Saints yearned for a one-volume history of the Church which could be recommended to members and non-members alike as factually sound and not so fervently partisan as to “turn off” the critical…
Read moreLiahona and Iron Rod Revisited
Articles/Essays – Volume 16, No. 2
In August 1967, I delivered a sermon in the Palo Alto Ward entitled “What the Church Means to People like Me.” DIALOGUE published it that winter and the Saints’ Herald reprinted it the following year.…
Read moreSeeking the Past: Nobel Quest of Fool’s Errand | George D. Smith, ed., Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History
Articles/Essays – Volume 25, No. 4
This anthology is designed for people with a professional interest in Mormon historiography as well as for the much larger number of men and women who have been intrigued or alarmed by the rhetoric about…
Read moreDialogue Toward Forgiveness: A Supporting View
Articles/Essays – Volume 26, No. 1
Mine is the interesting challenge to comment on “The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology/’ The bill of particulars that Lavina Fielding Anderson has presented is comprehensive and disturbing, her recommendations are…
Read moreWhat the Church Means to People Like Me
Articles/Essays – Volume 34, No. 1
A natural reaction to my title—since this is not a testimony meeting in which each speaker is his own subject—might be, “Who cares?” For who in this congregation, with the possible exception of my brother,…
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