A Survey of Current Dissertations and Theses

A year ago in writing of the prospects for future graduate study on Mor monism it seemed appropriate to prophesy a gradual deterioration. It is therefore exceedingly heartening to note that while the actual number of Ph.D. dissertations and masters’ theses has continued to drop, there appears to have been little decline in quality. 

David J. Whittaker’s lengthy investigation of “Early Mormon Pamphle teering” (Brigham Young University, 1982) provides a provocative look at the role of pamphlets in stimulating the early organizational and geographical development of Mormonism. Focusing on the life of Joseph Smith III, Roger Dale Launius vividly portrays the personal struggles that the Prophet Joseph’s son faced after his father’s martyrdom and during his fifty-four year tenure as president of the Reorganized Church (Louisiana State University and Agri cultural and Mechanical College, 1982). 

Seeking to provide a broader understanding of the rhetorical activity of prominent nineteenth-century Utah women, Nancy Briggs Rooker examines the life of Utah evangelist Mary Ann Burnham Freeze (University of Utah, 1982). In studying the aftermath of the Teton Dam collapse, Judith Ann Golec details that disaster’s social-psychological impact (Ohio State University, 1980). 

Michael Dalton Palmer traces the gradual changes the image of the family has undergone in Mormon thought and the role American culture has played in this transformation. Perhaps the most useful of these recent studies may be Andrew F. Ehat’s master’s thesis (in many respects, the equal of most doctoral dissertations) on Joseph Smith’s introduction of temple ordinances and the Mormon succession crisis of 1844 (Brigham Young University, 1982).