Item Detail
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25452
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11
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231
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English
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Playing with Shadows : Voices of Dissent in the Mormon West
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Norman, OK
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Arthur H. Clark Company
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518
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This collection of narratives by four individuals who abandoned Mormonism--"apostates," as Brigham Young and other Latter-day Saint leaders labeled them--provides an overview of dissent from the beginning of the religion to the early twentieth century and presents a wide range of disaffection with the faith or its leaders. Instead of focusing on a single disheartened individual or sect, this collection includes dissenters with different motivations and a wide range of experiences. Some devout Mormon converts, finding Brigham Young's implementation of the Kingdom of God disillusioning, turned their backs on religion in general. Yet most never lost their love for their fellow Mormons or their longing for the ideal society they had dreamed of building. Newspaper articles, personal letters, journals, and sermons provide context for the testaments collected here--those of George Armstrong Hicks, Charles Derry, Ann Gordge, and Brigham Young Hampton. The four range from those who felt Brigham Young had not lived up to the precepts of Mormonism, to "backouts" who gave up and left Utah, to a plural wife who constructed a rich fantasy world, to a devoted Latter-day Saint who gave his all only to feel betrayed by his leaders. Young warned one dissenting group that they were "not playing with shadows," but with "the voice and the hand of the Almighty"; accordingly, many dissenters feared for their livelihoods, and some, for their lives. Historians will value the range of beliefs, opinions, complaints, hopes, and fears expressed in these carefully annotated life histories. An antidote to anti-Mormon sensationalism, these detailed chronicles of deeply personal journeys add subtlety and a human dimension to our understanding of the Mormon past.
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Conquering the Black Ridge
In Sacred Loneliness: The Documents
Ladder to the Moon
Mapping the Extent of Plural Marriage in St. George, 1861-1880
Mormon Conquest : Whites and Natives in the Intermountain West
Mormonism and Violence : The Battles of Zion
Robert Newton Baskin and the Making of Modern Utah
Terrible Revolution : Latter-day Saints and the American Apocalypse
The Civil War Years in Utah : The Kingdom of God and the Territory that did not Fight
Vernacular Mormonism : The Development of Latter-Day Saint Apocalyptic (1830-1930)
Writing Mormon History : Historians and Their Books -
A Ballad of the Mountain Meadows Massacre
A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints (Commonly Called Mormons)
A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War, 1846-1847
A History of Beaver County
A History of Iron County : Community Above Self
'All Things Move in Order in the City' : The Nauvoo Diary of Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs
American Massacre : The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857
Among the Mormons : Historic Accounts by Contemporary Observers
A Mormon Chronicle : The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876
An American Prophet's Record : The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith
An Englishwoman in Utah : The Story of a Life's Experience in Mormonism
Army of Israel : Mormon Battalion Narratives
A Trial Furnace : Southern Utah's Iron Mission
A Trip Across the Plains in 1857
At Sword's Point, Part 1 : A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858
Autobiography of Elder Charles Derry
Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt (Classics in Mormon Literature)
'Between Two Fires' : Women on the 'Underground' of Mormon Polygamy
Blood of the Prophets : Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Bones in the Well : The Haun's Mill Massacre, 1838, A Documentary History
Brigham's Destroying Angel
Brigham Young's Homes
Brigham Young : The American Moses
Brigham Young : The New York Years
Buckeye's Laments : Two Early Insider Exposes of Mormon Polygamy and Their Authorship
Camp Floyd and the Mormons : The Utah War
Charles Derry : A Palimpsestic View
Charles Henry Wilcken, an Undervalued Saint
Charles S. Zane : Apostle of the New Era
Church Chronology
Church, State, and Politics : The Diaries of John Henry Smith
Conquerors of the West : Stalwart Mormon Pioneers : Vol. 1-4
Corinne : The Gentile Capital of Utah
Crime and Punishment in Mormon Nauvoo, 1839-1846
Crusade against Theocracy : The Reminiscence of Judge Jacob Smith Boreman of Utah, 1872-1877
Cultures in Conflict : A Documentary History of the Mormon War in Illinois
Defending Zion : George Q. Cannon and the California Mormon Newspaper Wars of 1856-1857
Deseret News Church Almanac
Determining and Defining 'Wife' : The Brigham Young Households
Devil's Gate : Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy
Diary of Brigham Young, 1857
Differing Visions : Dissenters in Mormon History
Divorce among Mormon Polygamists : Extent and Explanations
Doing the Works of Abraham : Mormon Polygamy : Its Origin, Practice, and Demise
Early Utah Journalism
Eliza R. Snow
Emigrating Journals of The Willie and Martin Handcart Companies and The Hunt and Hodgett Wagon Trains
Emma Lee
Encyclopedia of Mormonism : The History, Scripture, Doctrine, and Procedures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Escape from Zion : The United States Army Escort of Mormon Apostates, 1859
Exploring Western Americana
Expose? of Polygamy : A Lady's Life Among the Mormons
Expose of Polygamy in Utah
Federal Authority Versus Polygamic Theocracy : James B. McKean and the Mormons, 1870-1875
Feminist Implications of Mormon Polygamy
Feminists
Fifteen Years among the Mormons : Being the Narrative of Mrs. Mary Ettie V. Smith
Forgotten Kingdom : The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847-1896
Fort Limhi : The Mormon Adventure in Oregon Territory, 1855-1858
From Historian to Dissident : The Book of John Whitmer
From Isolation to Destination : The History of Washington County
From Men to Boys : LDS Aaronic Priesthood Offices, 1829-1996
Frontiersman : Abner Blackburn's Narrative
Garland Hurt, the American Friend of the Utahs
Gathering in Harmony : A Saga of Southern Utah Families, Their Roots and Pioneering Heritage, and the Tale of Antone Prince, Sheriff of Washington County
Getting Up a History of Monroe : The Long Shadow of the United Order
Gettysburg to Great Salt Lake : George R. Maxwell, Civil War Hero and Federal Marshal among the Mormons
Glory Hunter : A Biography of Patrick Edward Connor
Golden Memories : Remembering Life in a Mormon Village
Gold Rush Saints : California Mormons and the Great Rush for Riches
Great Basin Kingdom : An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900
Handcarts to Zion : The Story of a Unique Western Migration, 1856-1860
Hearts Made Glad : The Charges of Intemperance against Joseph Smith, The Mormon Prophet
Heart Throbs of the West
Heritage of the Valley : San Bernardino's First Century
Hero or Traitor : A Biographical Study of Charles Wesley Wandell
Historical Dictionary of Mormonism
History of Idaho
History of Indian Depredations in Utah
History of Las Vegas Mission
History of Spanish Fork
History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Period I : History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, by Himself
History of Utah
History of Utah 1540-1886
Homeward to Zion : The Mormon Migration from Scandinavia
Housewives, Hussies, and Heroines, or the Women of Johnston's Army
How Beautiful Upon the Mountains : A Centennial History of Wasatch County
'I'd Rather Have Some Roasting Ears' : The Peregrinations of Geroge Armstrong Hicks
In Her Own Words : Women's Frontier Friendships in Letters, Diaries, and Reminiscences
Innocent Blood : Essential Narratives of the Mountain Meadows Massacre
In Sacred Loneliness : The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith
Intolerable Zion : The Image of Mormonism in Nineteenth Century American Literature
'I Was Called to Dixie' : The Virgin River Basin : Unique Experiences in Mormon Pioneering
John Doyle Lee : Zealot, Pioneer Builder, Scapegoat
Joseph Morris and the saga of the Morrisites (revisited)
Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling
Journal of the Southern Indian Mission : Diary of Thomas D. Brown
Journals of Forty-Niners Salt Lake to Los Angeles
Journals of John D. Lee 1846-47 and 1859
Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia
Leonard J. Arrington : A Historian's Life
Letters of an Overland Mail Agent in Utah
Life in Utah; or, The Mysteries and Crimes of Mormonism
"Lonely Bones" : Leadership and Utah War Violence
Lore of Faith and Folly
Making the Most of Leisure : Depression, Recreation, and the Improvement Era
Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1847-1850
Massacre at Mountain Meadows : An American Tragedy
Memories That Live : Utah County Centennial History
Merchants and Miners in Utah : The Walker Brothers and their Bank
Monuments to Courage : A History of Beaver County
More Wives than One : Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840-1910
Mormon Convert, Mormon Defector : A Scottish Immigrant in the American West, 1848-1861
Mormon Country
Mormon Doctrine
Mormonism and Capital Punishment : A Doctrinal Perspective, Past and Present
Mormonism in Transition : A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930
Mormonism : Its Leaders and Designs
Mormonism Unveiled; Or, A History of Mormonism from its Rise to the Present Time
Mormon Memory, Mormon Myth, and Mormon History
Mormons and Gentiles : A History of Salt Lake City
Mormons at the Missouri, 1846-52 : 'And Should We Die'
Mormon Sisters : Women in Early Utah
Mormon Songs from the Rocky Mountains : A Compilation of Mormon Folksong
Mountain Meadows Massacre : The Andrew Jenson and David H. Morris Collections
Mountain Meadows Witness : The Life and Times of Bishop Philip Klingensmith
My Best for the Kingdom : History and Autobiography of John Lowe Butler, A Mormon Frontiersman
Nauvoo : A Place of Peace, a People of Promise
Nauvoo : Kingdom on the Mississippi
Nearly Everything Imaginable : The Everyday Life of Utah's Mormon Pioneers
No Man Knows My History : The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet
Not By Bread Alone : The Journal of Martha Spence Heywood, 1850-1856
Of Your Own Selves Shall Men Arise;The Mysteries of Godliness : A History of Mormon Temple Worship. [by] Buerger, David John
"One Long Funeral March" : A Revisionist's View of the Mormon Handcart Disasters
One Side By Himself : The Life and Times of Lewis Barney 1808-1894
On the Mormon Frontier : The Diary of Hosea Stout [1844-1861]
On the Way to Somewhere Else : European Sojourners in the Mormon West, 1834-1930
Open Hand and Mailed Fist : Mormon-Indian Relations in Utah, 1847-52
Orrin Porter Rockwell : Man of God, Son of Thunder
Orrin Porter Rockwell : The Modern Samson
Our Pioneer Heritage
Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah
Plural Wives
Political Deliverance : The Mormon Quest for Utah Statehood
Polygamy on the Pedernales : Lyman Wight's Mormon Villages in Antebellum Texas, 1845 to 1858
Prisoner for Polygamy : The Memoirs and Letters of Rudger Clawson at the Utah Territorial Penitentiary, 1884-87
Profile of Apostasy : Who Are the Bad Guys, Really?
Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power : Salt Lake City, 1847-1918
"Pursue, Retake & Punish" : The 1857 Santa Clara Ambush
Reminiscences of Early Utah
Saints of Sage and Saddle : Folklore among the Mormons
San Bernardino : The Rise and Fall of a California Community
Search for Sanctuary : Brigham Young and the White Mountain Expedition
Slouching Towards Slaterville : Joseph Morris's Wide Swath in Weber County
Social Problems of Today : The Mormon Problem in Its Economic Aspects
Solemn Covenant : The Mormon Polygamous Passage
Some Themes of Counter-Subversion
Southern Cross Saints : The Mormons in Australia
Stealing at Mormon Nauvoo
Teach Them to Till the Soil : An Experiment with Indian Farms, 1850-1862
'Tell It All' : The Story of a Life's Experience in Mormonism
The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri
The Aiken Party Executions and the Utah War, 1857-1858
The 'Americanization' of Utah for Statehood
The Ballad of the "Mountain Meadows Massacre"
The Diary of Charles Lowell Walker
The Federal Judiciary in Utah
The First 100 Years : A History of the Salt Lake Tribune, 1871-1971
The Folklore of Dixie -- Past and Present
The History of Salt Lake City and Its Founders
The History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The History of the Saints : Or, An Expose of Joe Smith and Mormonism
The Iron Mission
The Joseph Smith Revelations : Text and Commentary
The Judiciary and the Common Law in Utah Territory, 1850-61
The 'Leading Sisters' : A Female Hierarchy in Nineteenth Century Mormon Society
The Lion of the Lord : A Biography of Brigham Young
The Making of a Mormon Myth : The 1844 Transfiguration of Brigham Young
The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism
The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859
The Mormon Experience : A History of the Latter-day Saints
The Mormon Hierarchy : Extensions of Power
The Mormon Hierarchy : Origins of Power
The Mormon Prophet and His Harem ; or, an Authentic History of Brigham Young, His Numerous Wives and Children
The Mormon Prophet's Tragedy
The Mormon Question : Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America
The Mormon Rebellion : America's First Civil War, 1857-1858
The Mormon Reformation
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
The Mountain Meadows Massacre : A Special Report by J.H. Carleton, Bvt Major U.S.A., Captain 1st Dragoons, 1859
The New Mormon History : Revisionist Essays on the Past
The Pioneer Camp of the Saints : The 1846 and 1847 Mormon Trail Journals of Thomas Bullock
The Private Journal of William Hyde
The Red Hills of November : A Pioneer Biography of Utah's Cotton Town
The Rocky Mountain Saints : A Full and Complete History of the Mormons
The Saints and the Union : Utah Territory during the Civil War
The Settlement of the Brigham Young Estate, 1877-1879
The Shoshoni Frontier and the Bear River Massacre
The "Spirit Prevails" : Containing the revelations, articles and letters written by Joseph Morris
The State of Deseret
The Stenhouses and the Making of a Mormon Image
The Story of the Latter-day Saints
The Teachings of President Brigham Young Vol. 3, 1852–1854
The Tragic Matter of Louie Wells and John Q. Cannon
The Unsolicited Chronicler : An Account of the Gunnison Massacre, Its Causes and Consequences, Utah Territory, 1847-1859
The Village Enlightenment in America : Science and the Emergence of New Religious Ideas, 1830 - 1860
The Viper on the Hearth : Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy
The Walker War : Defense and Conciliation as Strategy
The Widow and the Lion of the Lord : Sarah Ann Cooke vs. Brigham Young
The Woman's Exponent : Forty-Two years of Speaking for Women
The Words of Joseph Smith : The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph
Things in Heaven and Earth : The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet
Tragedy and Triumph : Your Guide to the Rescue of the 1856 Willie and Martin Handcart Companies : Chronology, the Story, Maps, GPS Locations, Name Lists, Biographical Summaries
Twelve Mormon Homes Visited in Succession on a Journey Through Utah to Arizona
Unwilling Martyr : The Death of Young Ed Dalton
Utah's Black Hawk War
Utah's History
Utah : The Right Place. The Official Centennial History
Wayward Saints : The Godbeites and Brigham Young
West from Fort Bridger : The Pioneering of the Immigrant Trails across Utah 1846-1850
'We Were Willing Because We Were Obliged To' : The Mormons, Their Religion, and Why They Left Nauvoo
Wife No. 19
'Wild Bill' Hickman and the Mormon Frontier
Wilford Woodruff's Journals
William Law : Biographical Essay, Nauvoo Diary, Correspondence, Interview
Winter Quarters : The 1846-48 Life Writings of Mary Haskin Parker Richards
Writings of John D. Lee
"You Nasty Apostates, Clear Out" : Reasons for Disaffection in the Late 1850s
Zion in the Courts : A Legal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900
Zion's Camp : Expedition to Missouri, 1834