Best books to read

[Anonymous]

I use to not be interested in church history. I felt as though I was protecting my shakey belief system so I never studied the past. I have learned church history through the church (sunday school, seminary, etc.), and at a very basic level. Being that I was young, to put it sadly, I just didn’t care. I cared about my own things, and enjoyed only reading literature that appealed to me. Now I am interested in learning more about the history of the church. I saw the book review forum, but I am wondering where is a good place to start? Mind you I am looking for something pretty introductory, and un-biased. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I had a look at “Mormonism for Dummies” the other day. It follows the same format as the other books in the series, and was pretty good. I also don’t think (or hope) it is an anti-Mormon book.

There also “The Book Of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction”, which I found good.

A lot of the stuff out there is not Mormon-kosher (for want of a better phrase). I’ve read a few books which I wouldn’t want to mention in a church interview. Occasionally though, even when the books are “anti”, stuff does come out of them. For example, a book I read about Brigham Young recently was highly critical of him, in many ways, and yet, there were points that you could tell that the author admired his political skills, and thought his methods of colonising the west were highly original and usually effective.

[Anonymous]

Oh man, that’s a tall order brynngal. First a few points:

1. get it out of your head (quick) that any history you read will be unbiased. That’s just the nature of the beast. We’re only human after all. However, there are certainly some sources that are less biased than others.

2. If all you know is sunday school history, you are likely in for a bumpy journey. Don’t let that discourage you, but be aware that some issues will take a long time for you to work out (intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually). Don’t push it. I spent about 3 months seriously diving into church history and spent nearly all my time doing it. It was way overkill. I wish I would have spread it out more.

It might help if you elaborate on what you are interested in. If you want an overview I might suggest

“The Story of the Latter-day Saints” by James Allen

He was an assistant church historian to Leonard Arrington. In that vein, if you can actually get a hold of any of Arrington’s books those would also be good overviews.

If you want a history of Joseph Smith I would suggest Rough Stone Rolling by Bushman. This book is a hard read and very academic in nature, so it is not for the faint of heart. But it is likely the best scholarship on Joseph Smith produced to date (with Brodie’s “No Man knows my history” as a close second). Note again that neither of these are unbiased, but they are the best scholarship, meaning they have good evidence to back up their analysis.

If you’re interested in polygamy, then read “In Sacred Loneliness” by Compton. Again, very long and academic, but likely the best scholarship. If you’re interested in the culture, and magical worldview that really initiated much of Mormonism, check out anything by Michael Quinn. He is very good, and highly academic (for the most part).

Things I would stay away from: hardcore anti-mormon sites. I am not going to list them here as it is against our policy, but you’ll know them when you see them. They can be identified by blatant ridicule and half-truths with regard to the church. I found them to be easily identifiable – your mileage may vary.

You can try FARMS and FAIR, but I sure wouldn’t spend much time there. From an academic point of view I think much of their analysis is laughable. OTOH, some of their conclusions are well founded and I have loved some of their articles. When it comes to unbiased historical information I would probably seek elsewhere. I read a lot of FARMS articles when I was going through the core of my crisis and I found it to be very frustrating.

Also, I would strongly suggest familiarizing yourself with common logical fallacies and arguments. You will undoubtedly hit upon them in your quest, and you need the tools to recognize them. Both anti-Mormons and apologists make liberal use of them. Additionally, you will want to know what makes for a good argument. For a great reference on common logical fallacies, as well as sound arguments I recommend “The Demon Haunted World” by Sagan (not church related). Let me also say that sometimes the fallacious arguments ARE actually valid. For example, if you’re a conservative you are likely using the “slippery slope” argument to articulate why the new healthcare bill is problematic. Sometimes the “slippery slope” argument is a good one and we ought to adhere to it. Sometimes it’s a scare tactic and we should dig a bit more for the truth.

Again, I can’t emphasize strongly enough the need to be well equipped with understanding good arguments, and bad arguments. You are diving into a highly controversial area of research where there are few (if any) fence-sitters. You simply must be armed with a good baloney detection kit. Here is the chapter from Sagan’s book mentioned above.

If you want more specifics, let us know what you’re interested in.

[Anonymous]

If you are looking for more recent history in a very readable volume, I strongly recommend David O McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism.

[Anonymous]

hawkgrrrl wrote:

If you are looking for more recent history in a very readable volume, I strongly recommend David O McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism.

Oh yeah. Probably my favorite book of RECENT (last 60 years) history.

HiJolly

[Anonymous]

Euhemerus made great points about paying CLOSE attention to the mechanics of how people are saying things. That is so very important when we dive into controversial subjects — really in any area of though. There are NO unbiased history books IMO. Period. The best we can do is read from a variety of different biases so that we can develop our own opinions (biases) about the meaning and conclusions we want to make.

When it comes to Joseph Smith, Richard Bushman’s “Rough Stone Rolling” is more positive and believing (yet still acknowledged as one of the best books). Fawn Brodie’s “No Man Knows My History” is more from a non-believing perspective. I thought it was also an excellent book!

I think some of the classic “must reads” on early Church history at the top of any list would include:

-“Rough Stone Rolling” by Richard Bushman

-“No Man Knows MY History” by Fawn Brodie

-“Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power” by D. Michael Quinn.

-“Early Mormonism and the Magic World View” by D. Michael Quinn

-“In Sacred Loneliness” by Todd Compton

I have heard that “Brigham Young: American Moses” by Leonard Arrington is one of the best books on Brigham Young. It’s on my to-read list.

“David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism” by Greg Prince (who lives in my area BTW) is also excellent regarding the late 20th Century Church (Blacks & the priesthood issues, transition away from Polygamy, etc.).

I also HIGHLY recommend “The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship” by David Buerger for anyone interested in the development of the temple ceremonies. It was very informative! And very respectful (does not contain transcripts, etc.). It is mostly printed journals and letters from people who were there at the time.

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