New Essays on Mormon History | F. Mark McKiernan, Alma R. Blair, and Paul Edwards, eds., The Restoration Movement: Essays in Mormon History

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“It is still surprising,” state the editors of this volume, “how little good material is available in many areas of Mormon history.” To help correct this deficiency, F. Mark McKiernan of the Restoration Trails Foundation, and Alma Blair and Paul Edwards of Graceland College have collected a baker’s dozen of essays, including one each by the editors, encompassing a broad range of topics basically within nineteenth century Mormon history. Only two of the thirteen essays concern themselves with the twentieth century. Ten essays focus on the Utah Latter day Saints, two on the Reorganized Church, and one on the Strangite Church. Significantly, none of the essays has previously been published. 

Chapters One through Six concern themselves with the formative years through Joseph Smith’s assassination, beginning with Larry Porter’s “The Church in New York and Pennsylvania, 1816-1831.” Porter offers us a carefully constructed narrative of many of the major events of Joseph Smith’s life through the organization and incorporation of the Church. It is an interesting synthesis interweaving primary sources with most relevant secondary accounts (Fawn Brodie’s biography being the most notably absent source). 

“Kirtland, a Stronghold for the Kingdom” by Max H. Parkin is, likewise, a de tailed presentation of the growth of Mormonism, “from an insignificant neighborhood religion to an enlarged and formidable Christian denomination” between late 1830 and July of 1838. Parkin concludes that even though Kirtland was initially viewed as a “temporary way-station to be endured before the Saints could fully enjoy their Missouri land of promise,” soon it was thought that it would become “one of Zion’s greatest stakes.” Mormonism passed “from infancy to adolescence” at Kirtland, concludes Parkin. His blend of thorough primary source research with comprehensive coverage of secondary sources is very effective. 

“The City in the Garden: Social Conflict in Jackson County, Missouri,” by Warren Jennings is an entirely different kind of essay from those of Porter and Parkin in that Jennings eschews extensive primary source research for a thoughtful interdisciplinary consideration of the context of social conflict in Jackson County between summer 1831 and November 1833. “An analysis of the differences between the ‘Saints’ and the ‘Gentiles/” argues Jennings, “leads to the conclusion that the conflict was irrepressible,” largely due to fundamental differences in cultural heritage and assumptions. The “Saints” were largely New Eng landers while the “Gentiles,” the original settlers, were mainly border states mountain people. 

The next attempt to establish a religious community came at Far West, Missouri, discussed in F. Mark McKiernan’s “Mormonism on the Defensive: Far West, 1838-1839.” McKiernan presents a succinct narrative based on a combination of primary sources and contemporary and secondary histories. Heavy emphasis is placed on John Corrill’s 1839 Brief History of the Church. “A costly failure” is McKiernan’s conclusion for the Far West years. In fact, he concludes, “The Mormon leaders would have been exterminated had it not been for [a local sup porter] General [Alexander] Doniphan’s courage. As it was, most Mormon leaders spent six months in prison before escaping.”

Two essays encompass the Nauvoo years. The first, “Dream and Nightmare: Nauvoo Revisited” by Robert Bruce Flanders is by far the best chapter of the six on the formative years. Basically, Flanders has rethought the main issues elaborated in his 1965 Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi and summed them up here in a coherent and well written overview. Henceforth Flanders’ essay should be the starting point for the study of Nauvoo. The second essay, “Nauvoo and the Council of the Twelve” by T. Edgar Lyon, is a long, extremely detailed narrative of the Council and its domestic and foreign missionary activities from the mid 1830’s through early 1846. Of these first six, Flanders’ essay stands out in one major respect: a level of perspective, context, and balance is evident with him that is simply lacking in the other five essays. Jennings’ thoughful use of sociological theory on the Jackson County, Missouri, period is also noteworthy. The other four essays, while well researched and valuable, too readily reflect their shortness of perspective. 

The story of the Utah Saints continues in a very brief albeit concise overview of “The Latter-Day Saints in the Far West, 1847-1900,” by Leonard Arrington and D. Michael Quinn, and a generally balanced and well researched investigation of “The Mormon Search for Community in the Modern World/’ by James B. Allen. Concentrating on the twentieth century challenge “to be ‘in the world but not of it/ ” Allen rightly stresses the success of the Church’s struggle to develop a truly international frame of reference. His treatment of Black Americans and their relationship to twentieth century Mormonism leaves much to be desired, however. After stating that race relations and opposition to Vietnam were the two major social issues of the previous decade, Allen expends half a page on race and Mormonism followed by three pages on Vietnam and the Church. The content of the remarks on race is little better. Following the statement that the Church continues withholding the priesthood from “the Negro race,” Allen patronizingly comments, the result was “that zealous reformers throughout the country found in this explosive issue a continuing basis for attacks upon the Church.” Allen’s further comments are more balanced but given the critical nature of the problem for a major religious denomination with nearly two million American members, more extensive treatment of the issues involved could reasonably have been expected. The terrible abuse and prejudice endured by earlier generations of Mor mons in America tinges this matter with tragic irony. These remarks are meant less as criticism of Allen’s otherwise fine essay than as a reminder of the necessity for greater sensitivity. 

Of the remaining five essays, three are devoted to internal divisions. “The Re organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Moderate Mormons,” by Alma R. Blair, is an intriguing study, mainly from primary sources, of the formation of the Reorganized Church focusing on the role of Joseph Smith III in shaping the nature and direction of the Church. “Theocratic-Democracy: Philosopher King in the Reorganization,” by Paul M. Edwards, continues the story of the Re organized Church by following the career of Joseph Smith Ill’s son, Frederick M. Smith, beginning with his unanimous request to accept the Presidency of the Church by the 1915 Conference. “King James Strang: Joseph Smith’s Successor?” by William D. Russell is a fascinating biographical sketch of James J. Strang (1813-56), the founder of the Strangite wing. The text of his alleged “letter of appointment” to succeed Joseph Smith is included as an appendix to the essay. 

The remaining two essays—one by Davis Bitton and one by Klaus Hansen—are with Flanders’ the best essays in the collection. Bitton’s “Early Mormon Lifestyles; or the Saints as Human Beings” is a straightforward probe of the life of “the common people” of Mormonism, accenting place, food, shelter, family, work and play, and worship. Hansen’s introduction to the volume, “Mormonism and American Culture: Some Tentative Hypotheses,” is a provocative attempt to locate the place of Mormonism within the larger cultural geography of nineteenth century America. Reminiscent of a number of recent interpretations of a variety of groups, Hansen sees Mormonism as attractive to those people “who were left out of the hierarchy of values in the larger American society.” 

Overall, this is a very good collection of essays and provides a convenient summation of much of the best of recent scholarship on Mormonism in the nineteenth century. The title is a bit misleading, given the existence of Alexander Campbell and his followers. It would have been helpful to have an index, and more importantly a bibliography would truly have been a significant contribution, precisely because so many of the studies relied upon by the authors are unfamiliar to most outside the Mormon community. The major weakness of the collection, however, is that significance and import are all too often sacrificed to detail. This said, it must be added that this is a plea for more interpretation but not for less first-rate research such as is exemplified here. This collection is a tribute to one segment of an emerging cohort of historians of Mormonism and they, together with other scholars such as Marvin S. Hill, are responsible for a serious rethinking of the origins, growth and meaning of Mormonism within American religious history.

The Restoration Movement: Essays in Mormon History. Edited by F. Mark McKiernan, Alma R. Blair and Paul Edwards. Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press, 1973. 357 pp. $10.00