By Ben PDecember 11, 2012
Among the books in my forthcoming list for next year, there are new and expanded editions of two Mormon history classics: Terryl Givens’s Viper on the Hearth (available for preorder here) and Phil Barlow’s Mormons and the Bible (available in spring). This is great news. Both volumes were early experiments by Oxford University Press with Mormon history, and their success led the press to become the flagship academic publisher in the field. Both also made big dents in the Mormon historical community: Barlow’s nuanced the traditional understanding of how Mormons interacted with the Bible (I rely on his “selective literalism” model in much of his own work), and Givens, among other things, showed how American culture conceptualized Mormons as a distinct ethnic group as a way to avoid dealing with their theology. And finally, both works served as frontrunners and models to the current generation in Mormon studies: using Mormon examples to engage broader tensions and answer larger questions. It will be great to see both books in new, updated, and paperback editions–especially since Viper on the Hearth will finally be affordable! (I still remember shelling out $65 for a copy while an undergrad…)
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By Steve FlemingDecember 10, 2012
I think it was in 2005 when I came across Times and Seasons and I was rather enchanted by it. “These people are talking about interesting things.” “I want to be part of this conversation.” “I have important things to say.” “I’m working on important things right now that would inform these conversations.” “I would like it if these people knew who I was and thought what I had to say was important.”
Yet I quickly saw that all these feelings suggested that the blogs could be a dangerously seductive place to the aspiring scholar. I’m probably not just speaking for myself when I say that aspiring scholars badly want to be recognized. To be recognized we need to publish and that can be a long and difficult process. The time and effort between “brilliant idea” and “brilliant idea in print” is often significant. What if I could just skip all that and just throw my ideas up on a blog? Very tempting.
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By Edje JeterDecember 9, 2012
In previous posts I wrote about the deaths of missionaries; in this present I will treat the deaths of missionaries? family members. As before, I will focus on how the missionaries narrated the deaths in light of their Mormonism and on how the deaths influenced mission administration. Next week I will conclude this mini-series on death with a discussion of missionary reactions to the deaths of prominent church members.
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By CristineDecember 8, 2012
I am not a Bob Dylan fan. But I happen to live with one, and I?ve learned a lot about Dylan by osmosis. I suppose it?s only fair that some of my husband?s knowledge about music that isn?t to my taste has rubbed off on me. In the last several years, he?s become something of a scholar of representations of the Latter-day Saints in American history without any significant interest in the subject ? a hazard of living with someone who?s working on their PhD. [1] He has also become a valuable scout of sources for me, and can spot a pop culture reference to Mormonism at twenty paces. Imagine our mutual surprise when he recently starting putting things in front of me in which Bob Dylan makes explicit ? and sometimes admiring ? reference to the Mormons.
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By Ben PDecember 6, 2012
This past weekend I read through Armand Mauss’s recent (and excellent) memoir, Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport: Intellectual Journals of a Mormon Academic (SLC: UofU Press, 2012). There is lots to digest in it, and it should inspire several posts/discussions, but one thing stood out to me in the chapter that gave an overview of his career. I had no idea Mauss had such a circuitous route in academia before landing at Washington State University for three decades: he began as a high school teacher, moved on to a community college, and eventally landed university positions, first at Utah State University (where he somehow negotiated an Associate Professor position before finishing his dissertation!) and then at WSU in 1969, all the while working many odd jobs to support his family of eight children and finishing his schooling at night. Once at WSU, his career blossomed with many publications and increased respect.
It wasn’t until the 1980s, though, that he decided to turn his attention to Mormon studies. His dissertation dealt with Mormonism and race, though he had put that topic aside during his first decade plus as a faculty member. It wasn’t until he had “earned his dues” (his words) as a scholar and member of the sociology department, singling out his ability to bring in state and federal money for his academic projects, that he could do work on Mormonism full-time (26). Only then could he take the skills and talent he gained in other fields and use them to analyze his own faith tradition.
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By AmandaDecember 5, 2012
In a few days, my advisor will be having her biannual end-of-the-semester party. There will be the usual accouterments of an academic party: cheese, crackers, wine, a sausage wheel, but there will also be two babies. Last year, two of my advisor?s students had children. She?s expecting another one of her students to have a baby this year, and at least one of her previous students also had children in graduate school. Although her students seem to be particularly fecund, she?s not the only the advisor with pregnant graduate students in my department.
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By Ben PDecember 4, 2012
Yesterday I highlighted books and articles from the last year. But 2012 is nearly history now, so let’s look forward to the next year. What you’ll find below are the books I am most excited to appear in 2013 (or very early in 2014).
This list in no way attempts to be comprehensive. (For that, let’s all hope Jared T continues his legacy of fantastic and exhaustive “Recently Released and Forthcoming Books in Mormon History” at his new site.) Rather, this post just captures a number of titles I am really excited about–make sure to add to the list in the comments. And as is unfortunately common in the publishing world, there is a chance some of these titles may slip into the next calendar year, but at least we know they are not too far off.
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By Ben PDecember 3, 2012
Continuing a tradition from the past three years, here is my overview of what I found to be the most noteworthy books and articles from the last twelve months. I like this format because it not only allows discussion of different media of publication, but it also encourages us to contemplate broader themes that are currently ?hot? in Mormon historiography. (Also make sure to check out Stapley’s always-helpful Christmas book list.)
As with previous years, I am posting this in early December and will thus miss those books published later this month. Further, the selection process was purely subjective and represent my own interests; please add your own suggestions in the comments.
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By Edje JeterDecember 2, 2012
Last week I wrote about the death of Elder George O Stanger, who died in Missouri in May 1903. Today I discuss the deaths of Elders Richard E Johnson of Monroe, Utah, and Thomas J Adair of Loma, New Mexico, who died in August 1903 and August 1906, respectively. [1]
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By Tona HNovember 30, 2012
Major Problems in American Religious History, 2nd ed. Documents and Essays edited by Patrick Allitt. Major Problems in American History Series. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013. vii-xx, 519 pp.
Patrick Allitt (Emory University) has updated the American religious history volume in Wadsworth/Cengage’s Major Problems series for 2013 – the original edition was published in 1999, so a second edition was long overdue. And it turns out that it was worth the wait, if you can swallow the $95 price tag.
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