Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Dissertations and Theses

Perhaps the Roman historian Tacitus put it as well as anyone when he ‘wrote that “history’s highest function” is “to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and ideas.” Although the accompanying dissertations and theses may not achieve the standard Tacitus set for himself, they nevertheless serve as a reminder of the various avenues the continuing quest for personal excellence may take. 

With Robert Louis Millet’s consideration of “The Development of the Concept of Zion in Mormon Theology” we see constancy and change as coexistent elements in the Mormon religious tradition. In “The Influence of Mormonism on American Literature,” Francis J. Manning seeks not only to contrast pro Mormon and anti-Mormon writings (as several others have already done), but also to evaluate the fiction, poetry, and drama associated with the Mormon experience and to assess its impact upon American literature. 

Looking at Brigham Young’s influence on the development of education in early Utah, Lee Howard Grishman evaluates the prophet as an educator and his influence on early Utah education. Through the use of quantitative methodology, D. Gene Pace analyzes the impact of the leadership of more than a thousand nineteenth-century Mormon bishops on the political, economic, and social development of Utah prior to statehood. 

Ross Patterson Poore, Jr., in providing an in-depth look at Lanner v. Wimmer, the recent federal court case that reviewed the constitutionality of the Mormon Church’s released-time seminary program, chronicles the nuances of one of the more provocative legal issues the Church has confronted during the past decade. Focusing on the belief systems of the Amish and the Mormons, Elizabeth Laura Lathrop shows the effect of the structure of these two socio cultural groups on quiltmaking within each movement. 

Students of polygamy will be especially interested in Dorothy Geneve Young Willey’s master’s thesis on “Childhood Experiences in Mormon Polygamous Families at the Turn of the Century.”