Topic pages: Polygamy

 
2019: Blaire Ostler, “Queer Polygamy” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 52 No. 1 (2019): 33–43.
Ostler addresses the problems with what she terms the “Standard Model of Polygamy.” She discusses how these problems might be resolved if it is put into a new type of model that she terms “Queer Polygamy.”
2019: Helynne Hollstein Hansen,“Feminism, Polygamy, and Murder John Bennion: An Unarmed Woman by John Bennion” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 52 No. 1 (2019): 162–164.
John Bennion’s work is set in the late 1880s and focuses on plural marriage through the lens of a murder mystery.
2018: Gary James Bergera, “Review: A Private Revelation William Victor Smith. Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 51 No. 4 (2018): 224–228.
Response to Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation that studies D&C 132. Bergera shares why he believes that it shoulds be retired from the official canon of the church.
2017: Julie Bowman, “Review: Problem Plays that Cultivate Compassion Melissa Leilani Larson. Third Wheel: Peculiar Stories of Mormon Women in Love” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 50 No. 3 (2017): 183–185.
This work contains two different but similar controversial plays. The second play “Pilot Program” shares a hypothetical future if the church reinstated plural marriage and shares it through the eyes of a married couple.
2017: Benjamin Park, “A Book Full of Insights. A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835– 1870 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 50 No. 4 (2017): 261–266.
Ulrich’s book looks at the church’s history not through the eyes of the leaders, but everyday female members of the church.
2016: Stephen Carter, “Scared Sacred: How the Horrifying Story of Joseph Smith’s Polygamy Can Help Save Us” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 49 No. 3 (2016): 75–88.
Carter compares the story of Joseph Smith with polygamy to the story of Abraham and Issac.
2014: Kristine Haglund, “Editor Kristine Haglund on PBS Newshour” Dialogue Online, 2014.
Previous Dialogue Editor Kristine Haglund, in an attached PBS Newshour Segment, spoke about polygamy in response to the essays on the church’s website.
2014: Kristine Haglund, “Kristine Haglund on Polygamy in the NY Times” Dialogue Online, 2014.
In response to the church releasing essays about polygamy, Haglund shares some thoughts about polygamy in a New York Times article.
2014: Kathyrn Daynes, “Book Review: Shifting Attitudes: Nauvoo Polygamy Merina Smith. Revelation, Resistance and Mormon Polygamy: The Introduction and Implementation of the Principle, 1830–1853” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 47 No. 3 (2016): 145–147.
In response to Revelation, Resistance and Mormon Polygamy: The Introduction and Implementation of the Principle, 1830-1853, this book tells the history of the church regarding polygamy within five different phases.
2013: Christopher James Blythe, “’The Highest Class of Adulterers and Whoremongers’: Plural Marriage, the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite), and the Construction of Memory” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 46 No. 2 (2016): 1–39.
Blythe shows the denial among Culterites followers that the founder was involved in plural marriage.
2010: Stephen Taysom, “Twilight and Dawn: Turn-of-the-Century Mormonism” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 43 No. 2 (2010): 197–202.
Response to Post-Manifesto Polygamy: The 1899–1904 Correspondence of Helen, Owen, and Avery Woodruff that contains letter correspondence between Apostle Owen Woodruff and his wives after Woodruff’s father issued the Manifesto.
2009: Todd M. Compton, “The Beginnings of Latter-day Plurality Nauvoo Polygamy: ‘…but we called it celestial marriage.’” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 42 No.4 (2009): 235–240.
Compton focuses on the Nauvoo church leaders’ experiences with polygamy in addition to Joseph Smith’s wives.
2008: Carmon Hardy, “Polygamy, Mormonism, and Me‘” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 41 No.2 (2009): 85–101.
Hardy describes the long, difficult process of researching polygamy during a time that the church wasn’t open about polygamy.
2007: Bill Shepard, “An Inside View of Polygamy in the Midwest: “God Has Made Us a Kingdom”: James Strang and the Midwest Mormons by Vickie Cleverley Speek‘” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 40 No.1 (2007): 196–200.
Speek discusses the founder of the Strangites and his prior experience with polygamy.
2007: Marianne Watson, “The 1948 Secret Marriage of Louis J. Barlow: Origins of FLDS Placement Marriage” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 40 No.1 (2007): 83–136.
Watson explains how the secret marriage of Louis J. Barlow to a 15-year-old girl caused a major rift among fundamentalists. Today’s fundamentalist members are still experiencing the effects of that marriage.
2004: Gary James Bergera, “Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841-1844” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 38 No.3 (2004): 1–74.
Bergera uses evidence from plural wives to show who some of the first polygamists were in the church.
2003: Helynne Hollstein Hansen, “Feminism, Polygamy, and Murder John Bennion. An Unarmed Woman.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 36 No.3 (2003): 263–266.
In a response to Prostitution, Polygamy and Power: Salt Lake City, 1847-1918, Jeffery Nichols outlines the tensions between church members who practice polygamy and “gentiles” involved with prostitution in Utah.
2003: Kathleen Flake, “Mormon Polygamy and the American Constitution: The Mormon Question” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 36 No.1 (2003): 191–193.
In this response to The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth Century America, the reviewer looks at how Americans during this time period allowed the federal government to control religion because of our love of liberty.
2003: Marianne T. Watson, “Short Creek: A Refuge for the Saints” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 36 No.1 (2003): 71–87.
Watson shares why early fundamentalists broke off from the main church  and decided to leave Utah and settle Short Creek.
2000: Lawrence Foster, “Plural Marriage, Singular Lives in Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith by Todd Compton” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 33 No.1 (2000): 184–186.
A response to In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith and like the title analyzes most of the documented wives of Joseph Smith.
1998: Michael Quinn, “Plural Marriage and Mormon Fundamentalism” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 31 No. 2 (1998): 1–68.
Quinn shares what Mormon Fundamentalists believe. some stereotypes about them, and identfies the different groups.
1997: Jesse Embry, “Fundamentalist Polygamists: Polygamous Families in Contemporary Society by Irwin Altman and Joseph Ginat” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 30 No. 3 (1997): 186–188.
The work features interviews from modern-day fundamentalists. Jessie Embry adresses problems that she has with their work.
1994: George D Smith, “Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841-46: A Preliminary Demographic Report” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 27 No. 1 (1994): 1–72.
Smith discusses the importance of plural marriage in Nauvoo to church history. He shows that after Joseph Smith passed away, Nauvoo polygamy numbers rose.
1993: Marie Cornwall and Camilla Courtright and Laga Van Beek, “How Common the Principle? Women as Plural Wives in 1860” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 26 No. 2 (1993): 139–153.
A study done to see how many polygamous wives there were at the peak of polygamy in the church.
1991: Ken Driggs, “Twentieth-Century Polygamy and Fundamentalist Mormons in Southern Utah” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 24 No. 4 (1991): 44–58.
Driggs shares the story of how in between the First and Second Manifestos, polygamy was still happening in secret.
1991: Carmon Hardy, “Self-Blame and the Manifesto” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 24 No. 3 (1991): 43–57.
Before the Manifesto was first read in conference, members and church leaders fully believed in plural marriage as being a commandment from God. Once the Manifesto was read, over time members started wondering if it was because of their own actions that polygamy was no longer a commandment.
1991: Leo Lyman, “The Political Background of the Woodruff Manifesto” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 24 No. 3 (1991): 21–39.
Lyman discusses the political pressures from the United Government which led to the church issuing the First Manifesto.
1990: Ken Driggs, “Fundamentalist Attitudes toward the Church: The Sermons of Leroy S. Johnson” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 23 No. 2 (1990): 39–60.
Driggs shares what an early fundamentalist leader by the name of Leory S. Johnson taught about the church and polygamy.
1990: Martha Bradley, “The Women of Fundamentalism: Short Creek, 1953” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 23 No. 2 (1990): 15–38.
Bradley describes how even after the Short Creek Raids happened, the women there still believed in plural marriage.
1988: John Lehr, “Polygamy, Patrimony, and Prophecy: The Mormon Colonization of Cardston“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 21 No. 4 (1990): 114–121.
Lehr discussed the journey undertaken by Charles O. Card to move to Canada and preserve polygamy, before the First Manifesto during a time that members were being hunted down for for their religious beliefs.
1987: Jessie Embry, “Burden or Pleasure? A Profile of LDS Polygamous Husbands“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 20 No. 4 (1987): 158–166.
Despite what researchers have said over the years regarding for why men married plural wives, Embry argues that a significant portion of husbands married plural wives because of their religious beliefs.
1987: Eugene England, “On Fidelity, Polygamy, and Celestial Marriage“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 20 No. 4 (1987): 138–154.
England shares his reasons for why Joseph Smith introduced polygamy and then removed it as one of the commandments. England argues that polygamy was a faith testing experience which lead them to in his words “worthy to build God’s kingdom.”
1987: Roger D. Launius, “Methods and Motives: Joseph Smith III’s Opposition to Polygamy, 1860-90“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 20 No. 4 (1987): 105–120.
Joseph Smith III, the eldest surviving son of the Prophet Joseph Smith, was a firm believer that his father wasn’t a polygamist and tries to clear his family’s name. Launius describes the history of Joseph Smith III’s denial of Joseph Smith’s involvement with plural marriage.
1987: Linda K. Newell, “Polygamy Examined: Mormon Polygamy: A History by Richard Van Wagoner“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 20 No. 2 (1987): 154–157.
Newell has positive things to say about the church’s involvement with polygamy, but she also discusses issues with Van Wagoner’s work.
1985: Jessie Embry , “Exiles for the Principle: LDS Polygamy in Canada“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 18 No. 3 (1985): 108–116.
Embry describes the role that polygamy played in the forming of Cardston Canada, both Pre-Manifesto and Post Manifesto.
1985: Jessie Embry and Martha Bradley, “Mothers and Daughters in Polygamy“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 18 No. 3 (1985): 99–107.
An analysis of what the individual wives’ roles are in the 19th century among plural marriages. Embry and Bradley make the argument that the daughters in a polygamous relationship pay attention to how their own mom is doing, which determines whether or not when they are older they enter into a polygamous relationship.
1985: Kahlile Mehr, “Women’s Response to Plural Marriage“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 18 No. 3 (1985): 84–98.
Mehr shares stories of polygamy in late 19th century and early 20th century. He especially focused on LDS women’s opinions of polygamy when they entered into polygamous relationsips.
1985: Richard S. Van Wagoner, “Mormon Polyandry in Nauvoo“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 18 No. 3 (1985): 67–83.
Van Wagoner defines polyandry as having two or more husbands at the same time. He identifies women who ended up marrying members of the Twelve or Joseph Smith while they were were already married to their own husband
1985: Michael Quinn, “LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 18 No. 1 (1985): 9–105.
Quinn shares that even with the Manifesto that officially ended plural marriage, plural marriages were still happening in the church between the First and Second Manifestos. Despite church leaders arguring that no plural marriages were happening, there is evidence to support the fact that both church members and church leaders were entering into new plural marriages.
1979: James Clayton, “The Supreme Court, Polygamy and the Enforcement of Morals in Nineteenth Century America“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 12 No. 4 (1979): 46–61.
Clayton discusses the history behind The Supreme Court Case Reynolds v. United States (1876), and shares his opinion about what was going on between members in Salt Lake and the federal government.
1974: Lawrence Foster, “A Little-known Defense of Polygamy from the Mormon press in 1842“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 9 No. 4 (1974): 21–34.
Foster points out that in 1842 an unpublished pamphlet was written called “The Peace Maker” that expressed its support for polygamy. It is the first-known defense of polygamy before 1852.
1971: Gordon C. Thomasson, “The Manifesto Was a Victory!“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 6 No. 1 (1971): 37–45.
Thomasson argues that because the church did not give in tohttps://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/the-manifesto-was-a-victory/ the federal government regarding Renyolds v United States, even though it might not look like it, he believes the Manifesto was a victory.
1970: Kenneth Godfrey, “The Coming of the Manifesto“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 5 No. 3 (1970): 11–25.
Godfrey describes the steps leading to Wilford Woodruff issuing the First Manifesto.
1966: Thomas Alexander, “Federal Authority Versus Polygamic Theocracy: James B. McKean and the Mormons, 1870-1875.“ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol 1 No. 3 (1966): 85–100.
During the years of the Utah Territory, outsiders got appointed to the terrority to serve in various positions. For the most part, these Gentiles weren’t sympathetic towards the church, and one of the more famous outsiders is Chief Justice James B. McKean who tried to crack down on plural marriage.