Along with Jared T’s list of recently published and forthcoming book in Mormon history, I thought I would put up my own perspective on the past scholarly year. Not only does this allow me to mention some of the articles that caught my eye in the last twelve months, but it also provides a way to discuss major themes of recent scholarship.

[Note: Since this is going up before the end of the year, there are some works that will be coming out within the next mont that will be overlooked (most notably Mark Staker’s book on Kirtland as well as the new biography of George Watt). It also means that I will dip back into December of last year as part of my 12-month overview. Further, because of my own interests, I am bound to miss out on texts that are most likely of deep significance to other fields in Mormon history—that’s where readers’ comments come in handy.]

The Year of Documentary Sources

• Robin Scott Jensen, Robert J. Wordford, and Steven C. Harper, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books, Vol. 1 of the Revelations and Translations series of the Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian?s Press, 2009).
• Jill Mulvay Derr and Karen Lynn Davidson, Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry (Provo, Utah and Salt Lake City, Utah: Brigham Young University Press and University of Utah Press, 2009).
• Royal Skousen, The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).

I think that when we look back on 2009, what will stand out the most will be the excellent documentary editions that came out that year. The most recent volume from the Joseph Smith Papers folks, which will perhaps be eventually seen as the jewel of the whole project, has received plenty of praise from the bloggernacle, and even from the wider blogger world. The volumes on Eliza Snow and the Book of Mormon should not be overlooked, however, because both are vastly important contributions to Mormon history. I don’t think I could recommend any of these volumes nearly enough. (The recently released 5-volume Discourses of Brigham Young may also end up fitting in this category, but I haven’t been able to look through them yet.)

A Year of Dissent

• Polly Aird, Mormon Convert, Mormon Defector: A Scottish Immigrant in the American West, 1848-1861 (Norman, OK: Arthur H. Clark Co., 2009).
• Edward Leo Lyman, Amasa Mason Lyman, Mormon Apostle and Apostate: A Study in Dedication (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2009).

Dissent as a topic of study, anyway. Both volumes from from Aird and Lyman deal with an individual during the early Utah period that, through various issues or experiences, became disillusioned with the Mormon religion. What I most like about these volumes is that they have wholly different examples: Lyman’s is an apostle, while Aird’s is a common British convert.

Voices from the Bloggernacle

• Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, The Forms and the Power: The Development of Mormon Ritual Healing to 1847,? Journal of Mormon History (Summer 2009): 42-87.
• Nathan B. Oman, ?Preaching in the Court House and Judging in the Temple,? BYU Law Review (2009): 157-224.
• Matthew Bowman and Samuel Brown, ?The Reverend Buck?s Theological Dictionary and the Struggle to Define American Evangelicalism,? Journal of the Early Republic 29 (Fall 2009): 441?73.
• Samuel Brown, “William Phelps’s Paracletes, An Early Witness to Joseph Smith’s Divine Anthropology,” International Journal of Mormon Studies 2 (Spring 2009): 62-82.
• Samuel Brown, “Joseph (Smith) in Egypt: Babel, Hieroglyphs, and the Pure Language of Eden,” Church History 78, no. 1 (March 2009): 26-65.
• Christopher C. Jones, “The Complete Record of the Nauvoo Library and Literary Institute,” Mormon Historical Studies 10, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 181-204.
• Christopher C. Jones and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, “‘John the Revelator’: The Written Revelations of John Taylor,” in Champion of Liberty: John Taylor, edited by Mary Jane Woodger (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2009).
• Benjamin E. Park, “‘Thou Wast Willing to Lay Down Thy Life for Thy Brethren’: Zion’s Blessings in the Early Church,” John Whitmer Historical Association Journal (2009): 27-37.

It’s always fun to hear common bloggernacle voices in print. I’m sure I missed other bloggers, so readers will hopefully fill in the gaps. Speaking of gaps, Stapley and Kris’s work on ritual healing is filling a monumental one in Mormon history, and their work is as meticulously detailed and exhaustively researched as any I’ve seen (just see their opening footnote!). Nate’s article is not only fascinating, but you can tell that every detail and fact is teased out to its logical conclusion and every angle of interpretation considered—as could be expected from a law professor and printed in a law review journal. Matt B and Sam’s article, while not directly focused on Mormonism, is in itself a wonderful contribution to antebellum religious history and the development of an Evangelical identity; they are also working on a companion article that focuses on Buck’s Dictionary and Joseph Smith. Sam’s other work is of special importance to my interests, and he is (rightfully) challenging common understandings of early Mormon thought; if his book manuscript follows the logical build-up from the fantastic articles he’s been producing in the last few years, we are really in for a treat. Chris’s first article, though primarily a documentary piece, still reveals not only his careful research but his scholarly wit (he even gets a jab in at Bill Hamblin in a footnote!). His John Taylor article, written with Holzapfel, is a very informative and important contribution to late 19th-century Mormonism.

Articles that Hint Toward Future Biographies

• Todd M. Compton, ?Becoming a ?Messenger of Peace?: Jacob Hamblin in Tooele,? Dialogue 42, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 1-29.
• Todd M. Compton, “The Big Washout: The 1862 Flood in Santa Clara.? Utah Historical Quarterly 77, no. 2 (Spring 2009): 108-125.
• Gary J. Bergera, ?’This Great Thing Which Has Come to Me a Humble, Weak Farmer Boy?: Ezra Taft Benson?s 1943 Call to the Apostleship.? Mormon Historical Studies 9, no. 2 (Fall 2008): 155-164.
• Gary J. Bergera, “?Weak-Kneed Republicans and Socialist Democrats?: Ezra Taft Benson as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, 1953-61, Part 2.? Dialogue 41, no. 4 (Winter 2008): 55-95.
• Gary J. Bergera, “Ezra Taft Benson’s 1921-23 Mission to England,” Journal of Mormon History (Fall 2009), 85-111.

Both of these authors are veterans of Mormon history, and both have been quite prolific lately on these topics. Compton is currently working on a biography of Jacob Hamblin, and his meticulous research skills assures me at least that it will be an important contribution to Utah history. While I don’t know if Bergera is working on a biography of Benson—he may be working on a larger topic that incorporates Benson, or this may just be a pet topic—he has put out several important texts on the topic that makes me think he might be; and, if he is not writing a biography on Benson, he really should.

Important Stand-Alone Works

• Matthew J. Grow, Liberty to the Downtrodden: Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).
• Philip Jenkins, ?Letting Go: Understanding Mormon Growth in Africa,? Journal of Mormon History (Spring 2009): 1-26.
• Zachary R. Jones, ?Conversion amid Conflict: Mormon Proselytizing in Russian Finland, 1861-1914,? Journal of Mormon History (Summer 2009): 1-41.

That Grow’s book was interesting to me, someone who is quasi-allergic to any Utah War-related topics, demonstrates how well-written it is. Not only is it published by a major academic press, but it offers new insightful interpretations of Mormon-gentile relations in the early Utah period. Jenkins’s article, which deals with the cultural tensions of the American Mormonism being spread amongst western Africa, has taken, at least in my own experience, the position of “Article-most-sent-to-friends-and-family-as-well-as-discussed-at-dinner-groups-with-other-Mormons” (or AMSTFAFAWADADGWOM for short); it not only deals with issues central to today’s international church, but it is elegantly and simply written so as to be understood by the casual reader. Zach’s article is significant, in my opinion, in that it helps us turn our attention from traditionally popular narratives toward other international issues of the nineteenth century that deserve our attention. (Reid Neilson would be proud.)

Excellent Essay Collections

• Reid Neilson and Terryl Givens, ed., Joseph Smith, Jr.: Reappraisals after Two Centuries (New York: Oxford University Books, 2008).
• Alexander Baugh, ed., Days Never to Be Forgotten: Oliver Cowdery (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center).

The former volume has already been reviewed on JI by Matt B. It has several prestigious authors, multiple perspectives, and more than a handful of must-read articles when approaching Joseph Smith. If I were to teach a course on Joseph Smith, I would reach for this volume for many of the assigned articles—if not the entire book; it includes enough different approaches to the Mormon prophet as to raise numerous questions and insights. The latter volume, based on a BYU conference focused on Cowdery several years ago, contains several intriguing articles by respected scholars.

The Return of Jill Mulvay Derr

• Jill Mulvay Derr and Karen Lynn Davidson, Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry (Provo, Utah and Salt Lake City, Utah: Brigham Young University Press and University of Utah Press, 2009).
• Jill Mulvay Derr and Matthew J. Grow, ?Letters on Mormon Polygamy and Progeny: Eliza R. Snow and Martin Luther Holbrook, 1866-1869,? BYU Studies 48, no. 2 (2009).
• Jill Mulvay Derr and Carol Cornwall Madsen, ?Preserving the Record and Memory of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 1842-92,? Journal of Mormon History (Summer 2009): 88-117.

I have yet to read a piece of scholarship from Jill Mulvay Derr that I am not impressed by. Even while serving in numerous administrative positions, she provided important and insightful articles on various topics. Now, fortunately for all of us, she has been freed from the many administrative shackles and has much more freedom for her own scholarship. These three works, each in collaboration with another respected author, are not only excellent texts in their own right, but probably hint at what is to come from her. (Just glance over the notes of her recent presentation here, as well as some of the comments that follow, to get a taste of her brilliance.) Once she finishes her biography on Eliza R. Snow, I have a feeling that we will (finally) come to acknowledge her as not only the preeminent scholar of Mormon women’s history, but one of the premier historians of Mormonism in general.

Introduction of Another Venue for Scholarship

• Trenton Olsen, “Conflict of Church and State: Two Latter-day Saint Poets? Perspectives on the Utah War of 1857?58,” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies.
• Joshua Wheatley, “The Prophet-Editor: Joseph Smith?s Revisions to Two Revelations,” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies.
• Nate Olsen, “Marriage and Divorce in Islamic and Mormon Polygamy: A Legal Comparison,” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies.

This is not merely to praise these articles, though they are interesting, but to praise the new press they were published in. As mentioned elsewhere, Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies is a graduate student-run journal that encourages young scholarship. Being that it is located at Utah State University, as well as the growing importance of religious studies methodologies within Mormon studies, there will likely be much scholarship that at least touches on Mormonism. I look forward to articles in forthcoming issues.

Concluding Notes

• As we have come to expect, Bill MacKinnon produced several (3, by my count) insightful pieces on Utah War-related topics.
• John-Charles Duffy had a fascinating two-part series on the debates concerning Book of Mormon historicity. I found them fairly balanced, and they were definitely well researched.
• Due to the economic problems, we saw a decrease in book production. Not the least significant casualty was Signature Books, who, despite their history of mixed-bag scholarship, has offered many significant volumes in the past. However, even if they had to pause production, they have nevertheless offered a major contribution to Mormon studies by expanding their online library; their website is now, even more than the past, a treasure-trove of online sources.
• There will be more discussion on this shortly, but the roundtable discussion in the summer issue of Journal of Mormon History is a “can’t-miss.” Titled “What Will We Dow Now that New Mormon History is Old,” 10 respected and up-coming scholars discuss the future of Mormon history. I thought each entry was thought provoking, and it really gave me hope for what future scholarship will be like.

I’m well aware that I have probably over-looked other important books or articles; not only am I limited in what I read, but I have my definite preferences. I am now interested, however, in what others think are notable works from the last twelve months and what major themes you see in the current field.

One thing is clear, however: the field of Mormon history is definitely thriving, and has a very bright future!