Juvenile Instructor » 2008

Mormons and the Closing of the American Frontier

By Edje JeterJune 18, 2008

White, Protestant America’s nineteenth century frontier mythology—as most characteristically emblematized in the western—helped define the American character and justify the violent exploitation of the American West by Anglo-Americans. In the last three decades of the 1800s, many observers, Frederick Jackson Turner among them, worried that the frontier was closing and with it the source of America’s greatness, as they supposed. Since Mormons were part of the West, a change in how people imagined the West influenced how they imagined Mormons.

?That Saints shall have power?the kingdom to take??

By David G.June 16, 2008

The language of martyrdom and persecution provided Latter-day Saints the linguistic tools by which they could reverse the power relations as they had been defined by the Missourians and Illinoisans. Mormon opponents were successful in expelling the Latter-day Saints from both Missouri and Illinois, prosecuting and imprisoning Mormon leaders for crimes, all while avoiding legal sanctions for non-Mormon vigilantes. Mormon authors were well aware of these inequalities, leading them to imagine a time when God would vindicate their people.

The Mormon Justification for the Second Boer War

By Edje JeterJune 16, 2008

According to the about section, The Juvenile Instructor seeks to ?situate the study of Mormonism within wider frameworks, including American religious history, western history, gender history, and, on occasion, the history of the Republic of South Africa.? A Google site search for ?South Africa? reveals that RSA posts in JI?s archives are slimmer than a protea?s petal or a springbok?s ankle. Thus, for my first post, I?ll make a small contribution to JI?s South African historiography.

New Guest Blogger: Edje

By ChristopherJune 15, 2008

Please join the Juvenile Instructor in welcoming Edje as the newest guest blogger to the JI. Edje is a regular commenter here at JI (and other sites around the ‘nacle), and is, like the rest of us here (except for ol’ man Taysom), a grad student in history. Here is what he has to say about himself:

Review: Deseret Sunday School Songs, a hymnal

By matt b.June 15, 2008

There is no date, though a bit of research reveals that this hymnal was published in 1909.

Africa, Anxiety for Ancestors, and Mormon Work for the Dead: Considerations after Jenkins’s Tanner Lecture

By StanJune 13, 2008

In the Tanner Lecture at MHA this year, Philip Jenkins noted the substantial growth of Mormonism in Africa and asked the question: Why hasn’t it done better?

“What’s with this ‘Joseph’ stuff? Can you imagine Lutherans calling their guy ‘Martin?'”

By SC TaysomJune 12, 2008

Many Mormon scholars have a funny quirk. They refer, in formal scholarly work, to the founder of their faith by his first name.

“The First Methodist Sermon … in the Mormon Temple,”: Religious Activity in Post-Mormon Nauvoo

By ChristopherJune 11, 2008

Mormon historians’ various analyses of Nauvoo usually include a line or two about what became of Nauvoo after the Latter-day Saints left town. In The Story of the Latter-day Saints, James Allen and Glen Leonard summarized post-Mormon Nauvoo by explaining that after the Saints headed west, “the temple was shamefully desecrated by mobs; finally, in October 1848, an incendiary set fire to that magnificent sacred structure.

Mormon Studies at the AAR (2008)

By SC TaysomJune 11, 2008

The American Academy of Religion has just released its program for the 2008 annual meeting, to be held in Chicago in November. The Mormon Studies Consultation will be holding two sessions this year.

Brigham Young and Mormon Glossolalia

By GuestJune 9, 2008

John Turner is assistant professor of history at the University of South Alabama and contributing editor at the Religion and American History blog.

Newer Posts | Older Posts