William P. MacKinnon

WILLIAM P. MACKINNON {[email protected]} is an independent historian residing in Montecito, Santa Barbara County, California. He is a Fellow and Honorary Life Member of the Utah State Historical Society and, during 2010–11 was president of the Mormon History Association. Since 1987, MacKinnon has been a frequent contributor to Dialogue through articles, essays, and book reviews. He is now completing the second volume of his documentary history of the Utah War, At Sword’s Point, for the University of Oklahoma Press’s Arthur H. Clark imprint. During 1962–68 MacKinnon served in squadrons of the U.S. Air Force and New York Air National Guard, a distant cousin, if not collateral descendant, of Illinois’s Nauvoo Legion.

Brigham Young as Pastor: Compassion and Mercy During the Utah War, 1857–1858

Articles/Essays – Volume 57, No. 3

Will I run from the sheep? No. Will I forsake the flock? No. . . . I want you to understand that if I am your earthly shepherd you must follow me, or else we shall be…

Move Over, Fortune “500” | John Heinerman and Anson Shupe, The Mormon Corporate Empire

Articles/Essays – Volume 20, No. 2

When it comes to explaining economic matters, Americans have difficulty resisting conspiracy theories and are even more fascinated with their second cousin, the expose. Small wonder, then, that in a single week last July Fortune…

Loose in the Stacks: A Half-Century with the Utah War and Its Legacy

Articles/Essays – Volume 40, No. 1

With the Utah War’s sesquicentennial commemoration now underway, it is appropriate to reexamine that campaign’s origins, conduct, significance, and historiography. This article’s purpose is to stimulate such probing. I hope to do so through the story of my own research and conclusions about the war over the past half-century—one-third of the period since President James Buchanan and Governor Brigham Young came into armed conflict during 1857-58.

“Who’s in charge here?”: Utah Expedition Command Ambiguity

Articles/Essays – Volume 42, No. 1

Road Trip: The Strange Travels of Mark Sanford and Brigham Young

Articles/Essays – Volume 43, No. 3

Pomp, Circumstance, and Controversy: Richard E. Bennett, Susan Easton Black, and Donald Q. Cannon. The Nauvoo Legion in Illinois: A History of the Mormon Militia, 1841–1846

Articles/Essays – Volume 44, No. 3