2021 looks to be a bumper year for Mormon history and Mormon studies! Start your budgeting now.

Church Historian’s Press

David W. Grua, Brent M. Rogers, Matthew C. Godfrey, Robin Scott Jensen, Christopher James Blythe, and Jessica M. Nelson, Documents, Volume 12: March–July 1843 (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2021).

Royal Skousen and Robin Scott Jensen, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 5: Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2021).

BYU Studies

Glen M. Leonard, Artifacts Speak (Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 2021).

Greg Kofford Books

Cheryl L. Bruno, Joe Steve Swick III, and Nicholas S. Literski, Method Infinite: Freemasonry and the Mormon Restoration (Draper, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2021).

Trevan G. Hatch and Leonard J. Greenspoon, eds., “The Learning of the Jews”: What Latter-day Saints Can Learn from Jewish Religious Experience (Draper, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2021).

Herald House

Dale E. Luffman, Commentary on the Community of Christ Doctrine and Covenants, Volume 2: The Reorganization–Community of Christ Era (Independence: Herald House, 2020).

John Whitmer Books

Mark L. Staker and Donald L. Enders, Joseph and Lucy Smith’s Tunbridge Farm: An Archaeology and Landscape Study (Independence: John Whitmer Books, 2021).

Oxford University Press

Spencer W. McBride, Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021).

Signature Books

George D. Smith, ed., Brigham Young, Colonizer of the American West (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2021).

University of Illinois Press

Kristine Haglund, Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2021).

Michael Austin, Vardis Fisher: A Mormon Novelist (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2021).

University of North Carolina Press

Terryl Givens, Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021).

University of Utah Press

Virginia Kerns, Sally in Three Worlds: An Indian Captive in the House of Brigham Young (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2021).

Christine Elise Blythe, Christopher James Blythe, and Jay Burton, eds., Open Canon: Scriptures of the Latter Day Saint Diaspora (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2021).

Utah State University Press

Konden Smith Hansen and Michael Harold Paulos, Reed Smoot: The Investigation of a Mormon Senator and the Transformation of an American Religion (Boulder: University of Colorado and Utah State University Press, 2021).

BYU Religious Studies Center

Kenneth L. Alford, Lloyd D. Newell, and Alexander L. Baugh, eds., Latter-day Saints in Washington, DC: History, People, and Places

• This volume takes a fresh look at the history, people, and places in Washington, DC, that have affected the Church. Beginning with Joseph Smith’s earliest interactions with the federal government in the 1830s, the Church’s progress has been shaped by leaders and members interacting in Washington. This volume is filled with essays on many topics about the Church’s history, people, and places in the nation’s capital. It also chronicles many of the Saints and statesmen who have worked to bring the Church out of obscurity and onto a national and international stage.

Clark Hinckley, ed., Rescued: The Courageous Journey of Mary Goble Pay

• Thirteen-year old Mary Goble and her family were part of the pioneer overland journey to Utah Territory in the John A. Hunt wagon company in 1856. They traveled close to the Edward Martin handcart company and suffered with them through the cold of Wyoming. The core of the book is a transcription of Mary’s handwritten memoir with annotations that corroborate, correct, and provide context. This annotated transcription is bookended by an introduction and epilogue that place Mary’s story of her journey in the context of her life before and after her emigration.

Alexander L. Baugh, Stephen C. Harper, Brent M. Rogers, and Ben Pykles, eds., Joseph Smith and His First Vision: Context, Place, and Meaning

• This volume celebrates the bicentennial of Joseph Smith’s 1820 First Vision of the Father and the Son, a founding event in the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. Contributors examine the various accounts of the vision, the religious excitement prevalent in the region, the question that prompted Joseph to enter the grove, the powers of darkness that assailed him, and the natural environment and ultimate preservation of the Sacred Grove. The volume also treats the centennial celebration in 1920, various depictions of the vision in the movies, and implications of the vision for our day.

Casey P. Griffiths, Truth Seeker: The Life of Joseph F. Merrill, Scientist, Educator, and Apostle

• Truth Seeker is a biography exploring the life and contributions of Elder Joseph F. Merrill, Latter-day Saint scientist, educator, and Apostle. Merrill gained renown as one of the first native Utahns to earn a PhD and later as a longtime professor at the University of Utah, where he labored to reconcile the secular world with the spiritual world in his scientific studies. In 1912 he helped establish the first Latter-day Saint seminary at Granite High School and later, as Church Commissioner of Education, he helped establish the Institutes of Religion, with a mission to allow college students to reconcile the secular truths learned in university settings with the truths of the gospel. He created the Religion Department at Brigham Young University and encouraged young scholars to produce professional studies of the Latter-day Saint religion. In 1933 Merrill was called as an Apostle, where he continued his work to modernize the Church. In the final years of his life, Merrill continued to work to show that science and religion could be reconciled.

2020 Books not Announced Last Year

Anthony Sweat, Repicturing the Restoration: New Art to Expand Our Understanding.

• While existing artwork that portrays the Restoration is rich and beautiful, until now many key events in Latter-day Saint history have surprisingly never been depicted to accurately represent important events of the historical record. The purpose of this volume is to produce paintings of some of the underrepresented events in order to expand our understanding of the Restoration. Each image includes a richly researched historical background, some artistic insights into the painting’s composition, an application section providing one way this history may inform our present faith, and an analysis section offering potent questions that can be considered for further discussion.

Scott C. Esplin, ed., Raising the Standard of Truth: Exploring the History and Teachings of the Early Restoration

• This volume explores events and teachings of the early years of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Featuring scholars from Brigham Young University, the Church History Department, the Joseph Smith Papers, and elsewhere, the collection of prominent materials previously produced by the BYU Religious Studies Center is designed as a companion to personal and family study of the Doctrine and Covenants and Church history. Chapters explore Joseph Smith’s accounts of his First Vision, the translation of the Book of Mormon, and the restoration of priesthood power. Doctrinal teachings about consecration, Zion, the kingdoms of glory, and work for the dead are also investigated, as are harrowing experiences in Liberty and Carthage Jails and the exodus to the West.