Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

Biographies and family histories, have been by far the most popular subject of Mormon-related books during the past year. These works stem in large part from the ingenuity of family organizations and the ever increasing emphasis that President Spencer W. Kimball and other General Authorities have placed on the importance of keeping personal journals. 

Understandably, they are not all of equal quality, but in the main they are important both as historical accounts and as examples of what an interested reader might do with regard to his own heritage. Three of these biographies, Eugene England’s Brother Brigham, Frank M. Fox’s /. Reuben Clark: The Public Years, and Truman G. Madsen’s Defender of the Faith: The B. H. Roberts Story will be of particular interest to both casual and serious students of Mormonism. 

By skillfully blending beautiful photography with well-written prose Joseph E. Brown has written, in the recently-published Mormon Trek West, perhaps the most appealing account yet written of how the Mormon pioneers “crossed the plains.” Looking at the Mormons from several different perspectives, Mark F. McKiernan, Alma R. Blair, and Paul M. Edwards have collected a provocative selection of historical essays on The Restoration Movement. An equally stimulating volume, “By the Hands of Wise Men:” Essays on the Constitution, edited by Ray C. Hillam, presents the Mormons’ unique view of the American Constitution through both “scholarship and the special language of the Latter-day Saint faith.” 

Linda Thatcher’s painstaking research, which has produced the accompanying bibliography of recent dissertations and theses, provides meaningful insight into the kinds of research on Mormon-related topics now being pursued by seekers of advanced degrees.