Documents, Volume 13 was edited by Christian K. Heimburger, Jeffrey D. Mahas, Brent M. Rogers, J. Chase Kirkham, Matthew S. McBride, and Mason K. Allred. Visit josephsmithpapers.org for more information.
The Joseph Smith Papers Project recently released the thirteenth volume of their Documents series, which covers the relatively short period of August-December 1843. It comprises ninety-eight documents, transcriptions, contextualization, and footnoting that “chronicle a busy, often tumultuous period of [Joseph Smith’s] life” (xix). Helpfully, they show a religious leader, politician, businessman, and family man managing many concerns while acting primarily in his prophetic ministry. As with other volumes, D13 shows the workings of a man who saw no distance between the sacred and the profane. This collapsing of boundaries was evident, too, in his personal life. Even as he escaped the Missouri courts, he could not escape difficulties in home life or pressure in his religious ministry.
Book reviews are their own genre. They are not like anything else that you’ll write as a scholar. This is true for several reasons, which I’ll outline, but certainly because they are doing a particular kind of work in their analysis. Articles and books are generally self-explanatory for what they do as pieces of academic writing—book reviews’ values are not as easily grasped at first blanche.
In this post, I hope to share a few pointers for how to write a helpful book review. I use “helpful” and not “good” purposefully. Book reviews are utilitarian and meant to be engaged and digested by more people than will read the book. Know the genre and recognize its value.
Please enjoy the following presentations. One is by Rick Turley, entitled “The Rise and Fall of Mark Hoffman” and was delivered at Utah State University:
The second is by Emily Utt, on time capsules in Latter-day Saint buildings, entitled “Wine, Wheat, and Whatnots: The Material Culture of Cornerstones,” delivered at a presentation for the Utah State Historic Preservation Office:
Christopher James Blythe is Assistant Professor of English (Folklore) at Brigham Young University and editor of the Journal of Mormon History. He received his PhD in American religious history from Florida State University.
Shortly after the trailer for Under the Banner of Heaven released in late March, my Twitter feed filled with commentary about its reproduction of the Latter-day Saint temple endowment ritual. The only twitter post I specifically remember from that evening was from a young ex-Mormon woman who expressed concern that depicting temple ordinances was an act of prejudice. What followed over the next several hours was a textbook example of social media bullying filled with insults and condescension. By the next day, the young woman, now sufficiently bludgeoned and put back in line, had professed her intention to never write about Mormonism again. You are right, guys. I feel terrible. Sorry I didn’t think through how offensive my comments were. Reading her apology was as disturbing as witnessing the initial onslaught. Twitter rarely facilitates healthy discourse, and, in this case, its users already had the mechanisms in place to silence unpopular opinions. It was unacceptable to express even the mildest concern about the treatment of what millions consider a private, sacred rite. I don’t like depictions of the temple ceremony, but I am much more disturbed by the sentiment that Latter-day Saints (and their supporters) should not speak out against a clearly prejudicial take on their religious tradition. So, as a result, I have agreed to write about Under the Banner of Heaven’s depiction of temple ordinances in its third episode.[i]
The 58th Annual Conference of the Mormon History Association will be June 8-11, 2023, in Rochester, New York. The 2023 conference theme, “Beginnings” intends to evoke the many beginnings in Mormon history. Those beginnings include Joseph Smith’s first vision and the establishment of the Church of Christ in upstate New York, but also the many other firsts throughout the faith’s subsequent history. As this American religious tradition has grown from a fledgling church to a global movement with multiple expressions, it has attracted followers and critics, nurtured disciples and dissenters, and generated gatherings and schisms. It has, in many respects, begun over and over again.
Change is a key tenet of Mormonism, from its birth in the fires of the revivals of the early nineteenth century to its introduction of new teachings, policies, and organizations as it expanded its reach and extended its influence. Individually and institutionally, the faith and its practitioners have wrestled with the shifting theological, social, and political issues of American and global history, navigating and adapting in response to slavery and abolition, political opposition toward religious practices, the struggle for women’s rights, the emergence of the United States as a global military and political force, and, more recently, the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and growing political polarization around the world.
My thanks to series editors J Stuart and Cristina for their edits and comments on this post.
I haven’t read Under the Banner of Heaven; this post is about responses to the book that I have heard. After reading the book, my sister shared with the family her take on the book’s claim of the dangers of believing in personal revelation (Jana Riess makes the same observation about Krakauer’s claim in her review), and it was at that point that I began formulating what I’d observed from studying the history of Christianity: there’s been a long history of people being very worried about other people claiming revelations. No doubt such claims got Jesus in trouble as they did Socrates. After studying this topic in considerable depth, I’d say the worry of the potential threat of visionaries vastly outstrips the actual damage of such people, and thus it looks to me like Under the Banner of Heaven is a popular manifestation of an ancient claim.
John Hatch is an editor for Signature Books. He is currently writing “What Do You Mean, Murder?” Clue and the Making of a Cult Classic to be published in 2023.
Banner of Heaven is frequently criticized—not unfairly, it must be said—by historians of Mormonism for its inaccurate history and its willingness to engage in guilt-by-association. Author Jon Krakauer’s thesis seems that if extremists like the Lafferty brothers are murdering people, we ought to be suspicious of John and Jane Mormon, whose roots can be traced back to the same violent origins. The line between mainstream and fundamentalist, Krakauer not-so-subtly suggests, is mighty thin. While these criticisms of the book’s questionable history and shaky thesis are valid, I believe they are also used to mask a defensiveness that many Mormons feel about Under the Banner of Heaven. It is difficult not to detect a more visceral reaction to the book than just, “This gets our history wrong.” Inaccuracies aside, most Latter-day Saints dislike it because they don’t recognize themselves in it. They feel like it is not an authentic portrayal of their lived experience in the LDS faith, and no one wants to be told “this is who you are,” when it sure doesn’t feel like that is who I am. Some of this is because the book is, in fact, not authentic to the Mormon experience with its clumsy attempt to link violent extremists with the average LDS churchgoer. But some of this feeling that the book is not accurate is because Latter-day Saints are notoriously bad at understanding how they come across to outsiders. Many people think Mormons are weird and Mormons neither understand that nor particularly like it.
In 2003, John Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven hit bookshelves and became an overnight sensation. The story is a is the true-crime bestseller about two men who made headlines after a double murder shook a suburban Utah town. The men, Dan and Ron Lafferty, were raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but joined the School of the Prophets, a small Mormon fundamentalist group that understood themselves to be the most authentic remnant of the nineteenth-century faith.
Since its publication, the discussion around Banner never stopped. It consistently ranks among the five best-selling books on Mormonism on Amazon. It’s often the first book that non-Mormons will turn to in order to understand their Mormon (usually Latter-day Saint) neighbors). While it’s foolhardy to judge an entire population by a single book, much less one written nearly twenty years ago, it doesn’t stop well-meaning people from recommending it as an authoritative text on Mormonism or Mormon history.
Shirlee Draper was born and raised in Colorado City, Arizona, within the fundamentalist polygamous sect now known as FLDS. She was “placed” in an arranged marriage and had four children. She holds an MA in Public Administration and is currently the Director of Operations for Cherish Families and the Board President for the United Effort Plan Trust.
My Dad died last month. His health had been steadily degrading along with his mental faculties for a couple of years, so it was not unexpected. In writing his eulogy, I reflected at length on what a wretched life he lived—not of his making. You see, Dad had the misfortune to be born into what society has deemed a “Deviant” community, and culture. He was born of goodly parents—who practiced polygamy. Their goodly parents had, too, and on and on back about a century.
The week Dad turned 12, he and all the other children in his community (that would come to be known as “the FLDS”) were rounded up in the 1953 Raid on Short Creek. The history of this raid has been told so I won’t do it here. But I will draw attention to the CDC-Kaiser ACE Study[i] which demonstrates the very poor life outcomes of children who suffer trauma in their youth. Dad exhibited nearly every one of the poor outcomes on the list of projected issues created by ACEs. One of the manifestations of his trauma was his unswerving belief that his children would be taken from him if he accepted help, if we participated in extracurricular activities, or if we ventured outside our community. These fears directly impacted his children’s life opportunities. Dealing with my dad’s death and the way he raised his children because of his early trauma really sharpened the sense of injustice I harbor regarding the way “cults” are treated.
Cristina Rosetti is an Assistant Professor of Humanities at Dixie State University. Her research focuses on the history and lived experience of Mormon fundamentalists in the Intermountain West. Her book St. Joseph W. Musser: A Mormon Prophet will be published by the University of Illinois Press in 2023.
In the first episode of Under the Banner of Heaven, an Idaho mother looks at her son and tells him, “It’s you. You’re the fulfillment of Heavenly Father’s promise that he would send One Mighty and Strong to set things in order. And he sent me six mighty and strong, but you’re my one.” The One Mighty and Strong is a term that comes from Doctrine and Covenants 85 and is most often associated with Joseph Smith. However, in some families, like the one depicted in Banner, this is a title and claim that transforms a man into a prophet. Notorious men like Bryan David Mitchell, Ron and Dan Lafferty, and Evril LeBaron all claimed the title. But, beyond the notorious, I know a man who was given the title in his patriarchal blessing. I know former Latter-day Saint men who believe they are called to set the house of God in order. Even now, as portrayed by Dustin Lance Black, mothers tell their sons they are the One.
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “The burden of proof is on the claim of there BEING Nephites. From a scholarly point of view, the burden of proof is on the…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “But that's not what I was saying about the nature of evidence of an unknown civilization. I am talking about linguistics, not ruins. …”
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “Large civilizations leave behind evidence of their existence. For instance, I just read that scholars estimate the kingdom of Judah to have been around 110,000…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “I have always understood the key to issues with Nephite archeology to be language. Besides the fact that there is vastly more to Mesoamerican…”
Steven Borup on In Memoriam: James B.: “Bro Allen was the lead coordinator in 1980 for the BYU Washington, DC Seminar and added valuable insights into American history as we also toured…”
David G. on In Memoriam: James B.: “Jim was a legend who impacted so many through his scholarship and kind mentoring. He'll be missed.”
Recent Comments
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “The burden of proof is on the claim of there BEING Nephites. From a scholarly point of view, the burden of proof is on the…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “But that's not what I was saying about the nature of evidence of an unknown civilization. I am talking about linguistics, not ruins. …”
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “Large civilizations leave behind evidence of their existence. For instance, I just read that scholars estimate the kingdom of Judah to have been around 110,000…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “I have always understood the key to issues with Nephite archeology to be language. Besides the fact that there is vastly more to Mesoamerican…”
Steven Borup on In Memoriam: James B.: “Bro Allen was the lead coordinator in 1980 for the BYU Washington, DC Seminar and added valuable insights into American history as we also toured…”
David G. on In Memoriam: James B.: “Jim was a legend who impacted so many through his scholarship and kind mentoring. He'll be missed.”