By June 3, 2015
If you can believe it, we are only a few days away from #MHA50! Several JI permabloggers are presenting at the conference and more of us will be attending. A smattering of abstracts from several of our authors can be found below.
Here’s the format: Name: Paper Title (top) Session Title (Bottom). Let me know if this is confusing.
By June 1, 2015
This is the fourth installment of the first annual JI Summer Book Club. This year we are reading Richard Bushman’s landmark biography of Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005). JI bloggers will be covering small chunks of the book in successive weeks through the summer, with new posts appearing Monday mornings. We invite anyone and everyone interested to read along and to use the comment sections on each post to share your own reflections and questions. There are discussion questions below.
Installments:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 7, “The Kirtland Visionaries: January-June 1831”
Chapter 8, “Zion: July-December 1831” and Chapter 9, “The Burden of Zion: 1832”
By May 22, 2015
The following message is from our friends at The Mormon History Association:
Have you reserved your room yet for the fast-approaching MHA conference? MHA has arranged for a discounted room rate of just $99/night at the conference hotel, the Provo Marriott. Call 801-377-4700 to make your reservations. Be sure to mention MHA to receive the group rate. If you are interested in finding a roommate to share the cost of the room, send us an email to 2015conference@mormonhistoryassociation.org and we’ll assist you. Type “room share” in the email’s subject line when you contact us.
#MHA50
$99 for a Marriott room is a fantastic bargain if you don’t have accommodations arranged, please take advantage of this deal. Then you don’t have to worry about driving home from the conference at night, driving to the conference in the morning, or the burden of forgetting something important in your hotel room. If costs are an issue, there are many folks looking to share a room to defer costs. Be sure to take advantage of the MHA’s offer to line you up with a roommate who is as interested in Mormon History as you are!
You can also view the final program for the conference here: MHA Program-Final. See you in Provo!
By May 19, 2015
Miscegenation and “One Drop”
The sixth and seventh chapters of Paul Reeve’s Religion of a Different Color focus on the six decades after plural marriage became public in 1852. In these chapters, Reeve examines the intertwining of polygamy and blackness after the 1856 presidential election, and how Mormonism’s racial restriction on priesthood/tem
By May 13, 2015
Russell W. Stevenson, author of For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism, 1830-2013 has graciously agreed to answer a few questions about his work. The book was reviewed on JI a few weeks ago. Please add any other questions you may have in the comments!
When did you begin researching For the Cause of Righteousness?
Since this developed as an outgrowth of an earlier project, Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables, one might say that I began researching as early as fall 2011. However, I began writing For the Cause in earnest in spring 2013.
By April 30, 2015
The MHA Board has decided to extend reduced pre-registration fees for this year’s meeting of the Mormon History Association until May 8! The conference will be held June 4-7, 2015 in Provo, UT. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Association’s founding and the MHA Board and local arrangements committee have gone all out to ensure this is the best MHA conference ever held. Whether you are a graduate student, early-career scholar, an armchair historian or are just interested in Mormonism and its history, this is the conference for you. There is something for everyone. EVERYONE. [See program HERE]
As an added bonus this year, the following events are FREE to all registered attendees:
By April 28, 2015
A few weeks ago, I toured Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello with my parents. On the tour, the pleasant guide informed our group that Thomas Jefferson most likely fathered several children with his slave, Sally Hemmings. The tour guide than asked the group rhetorically, “How could the author of the Declaration of Independence also own slaves, much less father children that became his human property?” I admired her response to her own question, “There is no reconciling. He was wrong. We cannot excuse his behavior.”
The tour came in the midst of my reading of Russell W. Stevenson’s For the Cause of Righteousness: A Global History of Blacks and Mormonism. Like the tour guide, Stevenson offers valuable information in the midst of a larger narrative, the history of “blacks” in Mormonism.[i] His narrative offers readers a straightforward account of the priesthood and temple restriction for those of African descent in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He does so with a wealth of documents, including many that I had never before seen. Like the tour guide at Monticello, he does not attempt to excuse those that upheld the ban through action or apathy. Stevenson should be commended writing the best resource for Latter-day Saints to learn more about the experience of Mormon blacks in settings both American and international. Stevenson also does an admirable job demonstrating that lay Latter-day Saints largely upheld the priesthood and temple restriction; it was not merely the decree of church leaders.
By April 27, 2015
Ten years ago, Richard Bushman published Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling with Knopf. Bushman’s biography of Mormonism’s founder garnered widespread praise and provoked a number of conversations within the Mormon Studies community. Jan Shipps argued in the Journal of American History that Bushman’s biography represented a new chapter in the study of Mormonism. She wrote that Rough Stone Rolling is “a work of new American history that forces readers to recognize that religion is as much of our past as anything else.”[i] Through doing so, she argued that Mormon history would soon function be used as a lens to understand broader topics in American history and American religion rather than for exclusively Mormon purposes to Mormon audiences.[ii]
Shipps’ review appears to have been, well, prophetic. The past decade has witnessed an explosion of scholarship on Mormonism that historians and religious studies scholars must take seriously. Books by Spencer Fluhman, Patrick Mason, John Turner, Christine Talbot, the Joseph Smith Papers Project Team, Paul Reeve, Jared Farmer, Steve Taysom, Sam Brown, as well as many journal authors, have produced work useable in university classrooms.[iii]
By April 26, 2015
First, some very important new from this week comes from our friends at the Mormon History Association (from their Facebook page):
We regret to announce that Debra and David Marsh have resigned as executive directors of the Mormon History Association. We thank them for their service and wish them well in their future endeavors. MHA office assistance is in place. We are grateful to MHA’s program committee and local arrangements committee, who continue in their efforts to provide an outstanding 50th-Anniversary Conference this June.
Board of Directors, Mormon History Association
By April 11, 2015
For JI readers living in or around Washington DC
Kathleen Flake, Richard Lyman Bushman Chair for Mormon Studies at the University of Virginia, will be speaking at George Mason University on Monday, April 13th. As part of John Turner’s course “Religion in America,” Professor Flake will deliver a guest lecture entitled, “Modern Love & Mormon Marriage.” The lecture will take place at 12 PM at Merten Hall 1202 on George Mason University’s Fairfax campus.
From the flyer: “Except for a relatively brief historical moment in the mid-20th century, Mormonism has always been at odds with what most Americans think marriage means and what it ought to look like. This lecture invited you to think about why that is and what we can learn from it.” Light refreshments will be provided.
FOR ALL THOSE INVOLVED IN ANY WAY WITH #MHA50:
The Mormon History Association has launched a 50th Anniversary Conference Blog. Please be sure to visit it often for updates and discussion about the upcoming conference (the program schedule is available there as well!). This is a great way to gear up for the conference and begin conversations that can continue in person in Provo. In 54 days. Not that we’re counting or anything.
© 2025 – Juvenile Instructor
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