By GuestMarch 17, 2009
Admin: We’re pleased to have Brant E. present an introduction to some of his fascinating research on Mormon participation in the Civil War.
I am thrilled for the opportunity to share some of my research with an audience that actually may be as interested in it as I am! It has been too long since I last had someone’s eyes widen when I told them I am studying the Mormons during the Civil War. And as I have been following JI as a “ghost reader” for some time now, I feel it is only appropriate that I finally thank the contributors for their insightful posts.
Continue Reading
By David G.March 17, 2009
I’m pleased to introduce JI readers to an old friend of mine from BYU, Brant E., who will be guesting with us for a couple of weeks. Here’s Brant’s bio:
I only recently discovered a deep-interest in Mormon history and have been frantically trying to learn as much as I can. I thank the contributors at the JI for keeping me current with some of the current thoughts in Mormon Studies. Currently, I am in the final semester of my MA in American Studies at Penn State. I received a BA also in American Studies from BYU in ’06. My thesis explores the motivation of Mormon soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
Let’s welcome Brant.
By Ben PMarch 16, 2009
Currently, a couple of seasoned Mormon scholars are working on a book collection of Mormon documents for Columbia University Press. This got me thinking: what would you say are “essential” documents in the LDS past?
Continue Reading
By StanMarch 14, 2009
Yes, believe it or not, I have re-emerged and am actually posting something.
Continue Reading
By David G.March 13, 2009
I recently put one of my profs on the spot. He was bragging to the class about how he’s such great friends with the early American historian Alan Taylor, but when I asked if he was friends with Taylor on Facebook, my prof turned red, lowered his head, and confessed that Taylor had rejected his friend request (ok, not really, my prof said he didn’t have a facebook account . . . yet). Anyway, check the JI out on Facebook and become our fan.
http://apps.new.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/the_juvenile_instructor_a_mormon_history_blog/
By Jared TMarch 11, 2009
Last year, to much fanfare, Eborn Books released S. Michael Tracy’s Millions Shall Know Brother Joseph Again: The Joseph Smith Photograph which argues that a daguerreotype (known as the Scannel Daguerreotype) owned by the Community of Christ is an authentic daguerreotype of Joseph Smith. Here is a gratuitous me reference that came out the day of the book’s release and here is a story from the Mormon Times the day after that better shows the image.
Continue Reading
By ChristopherMarch 11, 2009
I recently completed reading Curtis J. Evans’s excellent new book, The Burden of Black Religion. In his book, Evans examines the various ways that African American religion and religiosity has been thought of and characterized from the early 19th century through the mid-20th century.
Continue Reading
By David G.March 7, 2009
In my previous post on Howe’s What Hath God Wrought, I discussed Howe’s treatment of Mormon history from the 1820s through 1838. This post will complete my analysis of Howe by examining his discussion of Nauvoo, the exodus, and early Utah history. Let me just reiterate the point of my earlier post-Howe, unlike other historians who treat Mormonism in synthesis histories, has taken the time to get the details right and to engage contemporary Mormon scholarship. Just as he situated early Mormonism in Chapter 8 (“Pursuing the Millennium”) with other millenarian groups in the Early Republic, Howe in Chapter 18 (“Westward the Star of Empire”) includes Nauvoo and Utah within the wider contexts of Manifest Destiny, California, Oregon, and the Mexican-American War.
Continue Reading
By Jared TMarch 7, 2009
We’re pleased that Trevor Holyoak, who attended last week’s Symposium on Preserving Church History at BYU, has agreed to share his notes here with all of us. Including notes from the presentation of our own Ben P. Enjoy!
Continue Reading
By Ardis SMarch 5, 2009
Last year, as I was contemplating what research project I should engage in for my African-American history course, I came across a quote that intrigued me. In an article in BYU’s student newspaper the Daily Universe, 1960s student reporter Doug Wixom stated that “[t]he whole social protest movement passed right over the heads of BYU students that lived in Happy Valley” because students “were all so much in harmony with the basic values of the church that there was nothing to protest.” [1] This quote made me wonder–what was the actual reaction on BYU campus, if any, to the vast political and social events that were occurring in the United States during the time period? Were BYU students immune from social unrest or political uncertainty simply because they were shielded by their adherence to “the basic values of the church,” as Wixom postulates, or were the issues that were being discussed and protested on other college campuses throughout the nation similarly relevant and present at BYU?
What I have found in my research is that the latter view offers a more accurate description of the atmosphere at BYU during the 1950s and the 1960s.
Continue Reading
Recent Comments
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “Interesting, Jack. But just to reiterate, I think JS saw the SUPPRESSION of Platonic ideas as creating the loss of truth and not the addition.…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “Thanks for your insights--you've really got me thinking. I can't get away from the notion that the formation of the Great and Abominable church was an…”
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “In the intro to DC 76 in JS's 1838 history, JS said, "From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many important…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “"I’ve argued that God’s corporality isn’t that clear in the NT, so it seems to me that asserting that claims of God’s immateriality happened AFTER…”
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. …”