Leonard J. Arrington

Scholarly Studies of Mormonism in the Twentieth Century

Although reared in a Mormon home in Idaho and although my family were devout members of the Mormon faith, I was first introduced to Mormon studies as a graduate student in economics at the University…

Introduction: The Future of Mormonism

Preface  The articles in this section reveal the strength and vibrancy of current Mormon historiography. In December, 1965, in connection with the meetings of the American Historical Association at San Francisco, approximately 100 Mormon historians,…

The Church Today | Robert Mullen, The Latter-day Saints: The Mormons Yesterday and Today, and Wallace Turner, The Mormon Establishment

The emergence of Michigan’s Governor George Romney as a strong contender for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1968, the popular Mormon exhibit at the New York World’s Fair, and the spread of Mormon buildings and…

The Founding of the L.D.S. Institutes of Religion

An important facility near the campuses of colleges and universities in areas where there are substantial numbers of Mormons is the L.D.S. Institute of Religion.[1] In numbers of students the Institutes represent the most important…

The Search for Truth and Meaning in Mormon History

The philosopher Plato, to whom dialogue was the highest expression of intellectuality, denned thought as “the dialogue of the soul with itself.” It is thus altogether fitting that the editors of Dialogue should encourage Mormon…

The Intellectual Tradition of the Latter-day Saints

In one of the earliest books of imaginative literature about the Ameri can West (published in 1826), novelist-editor-missionary-biographer Timothy Flint reveals a common impression of the time that “in travelling towards the frontier, the decreasing…

Willard Young: The Prophet’s Son at West Point

A common object of humor among visitors to Mormon Country in the nineteenth century was the large number of children. Many travellers’ accounts contain a version of the story of Brigham Young’s encounter with a…

The Missouri & Illinois Mormons in Ante Bellum Fiction

Our understanding of the American past has been greatly enriched in recent years by studies which have made use of literary sources. Few works, for example, surpass the challenging insights and interpretations of Henry Nash Smith’s Virgin Land (1950), William R. Taylor’s Cavalier and Yankee (1961), Edmund Wilson’s Patriotic Gore (1962), and Leo Marx’s The Machine in the Garden (1964). Such studies have proved to be so useful that some historians now concede that a review of the contemporary fiction is a fruitful, if not an indispensable, preliminary to the search for historical truth in any period. 

The Farm Boy and the Angel | Carl Carmer, The Farm Boy and the Angel

Readers of Dialogue who have been searching for a sympathetic, read able, and reasonably accurate introduction to Mormonism to present to their non-Mormon friends may well consider Carl Carmer’s The Farm Boy and the Angel.…

Blessed Damozels: Women in Mormon History

Historians have long recognized the role of women in the development of Western civilization and culture, but for some reason the role of women in Mormon history has been overlooked. Among both Mormon and non-Mormon…

Joseph Fielding Smith: Faithful Historian

“To record as truth that which is false, and to palm off as facts that which is fiction degrades [the writer], insults his readers, and outrages his profession.”—Joseph Fielding Smith Joseph Fielding Smith began his service in the…

Mormonism: From Its New York Beginnings

That the handful of early Mormon converts decided to migrate from New York only nine months after their church was organized has led some scholars to suppose that the basic influence on Latter-day Saint doctrines…

The Writing of Latter-day Saints History: Problems, Accomplishments and Admonitions

The challenge of writing religious history is an old one.[1] The ancient Hebrews incorporated history into their scriptures, and Luke the physician is but one of the historians whose writings were canonized in the Christian…

N. Eldon Tanner, Man of Integrity

He was tall, thin, and taciturn; but he had a clear head and a big heart. He played many roles in the First Presidency and played them all dependably, admirably. 

Spencer W. Kimball, Apostle of Love

Although I had heard his addresses in general conference and in at least one stake conference, I was first impressed with Spencer Kimball as a spiritual leader on 6 April 1954, when he spoke in…

Twenty Years with Dialogue: Dialogue’s Valuable Service for LDS Intellectuals

Many of you will find it difficult to understand the enormous importance DIALOGUE had to my generation and to young Latter-day Saint readers at the time of its founding—those between the ages of twenty and…

Great Basin Kingdom Revisited

The Search for Truth and Meaning in Mormon History

When the Mormon Church Invested in Southern Nevada Gold Mines