By David G.January 7, 2008
We often hear about Joseph Smith’s sojourn in a Missouri prison during the winter of 1838-1839, but Parley P. Pratt also spent about eight months in a Missouri jail, an experience that receives little attention. Those eight months were, in a word, prolific, as Pratt produced not only a major full-length treatise describing the Mormon persecutions in Missouri, but also an important theological essay. He also wrote several surviving letters and poems. Some of the poems are better
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By Ben PJanuary 7, 2008
In elders quorum yesterday, we discussed the first chapter in the new Joseph Smith Manual. Expectedly, it treated the First Vision and the class discussed how the First Vision was the great starting point of the Restoration and Joseph Smith’s prophetic career.
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By ChristopherJanuary 7, 2008
As mentioned elsewhere, the latest volume of The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal has a number of quality articles examining interesting issues dealing with various expressions of the Latter Day Saint movement. Although The JWHA Journal has, over the years, consistently published relevant and interesting articles (back issues can be ordered here), John Hamer deserves some recognition for his recent efforts to expand JWHA’s relevance and reach to the larger intellectual LDS community. Volume 27 (2007) of The JWHA Journal is evidence of the success of his efforts. Because of the number of articles included in the volume (12), I will conduct the review in two parts. The review provided here is intended to be neither comprehensive nor thorough. Though all articles included in the volume will be mentioned here, those that receive the most attention are admittedly those that reflect my personal interest (and what I assume is of particular interest to most JI readers).
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By David G.January 5, 2008
It has recently been suggested that we should commemorate the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, rather than his birthday. I wonder how contemporary Latter-day Saints would respond to having an official holiday set aside to remember the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. In speaking to some of my friends and family about the idea, I’ve seen some resistance, in part I think to the contemporary fear of being perceived by outsiders as worshipping Joseph Smith. Parley P. Pratt, in his “One Hundred Years Hence. 1945.”, speculated that in the Millennium we will hold feast days to h
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By David G.January 4, 2008
Paul Reeve’s new book, Making Space on the Western Frontier, has received some positive reviews around the ‘nacle. ‘Nacle reviews however count for very little in the world of academia. In the latest issue of The Journal of American History historian Anne Hyde has written a very positive review of the work, calling it “an effective case study at both the micro and macro levels.” In summarizing Reeve’s study, Hyde concludes that Reeve’s attention to the workings of federal officials to privilege mining interests at the expense of Southern Paiute and Mormon claims to space in southern Utah/eastern Nevada is “stunning.” She lauds his reconstruction of efforts by Mormons and Southern Paiutes to survive the onslaught of “an awesome flexing of federal might.” The review, unlike Reeve’s prose, is a bit dry, but is well worth the read. I suspect that Paul is more than a little pleased to see his book so well reviewed in one of the top journals in the historical profession.
For those with access to a university library, here’s a like to the full text of the review.
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