27599

25

132

Book

English

Prince, Gregory A.

Leonard Arrington and the Writing of Mormon History

Utah

University of Utah Press

2016

432

[2017 John Whitmer Historical Association winner for Best Biography Book]

Leonard Arrington, author of Great Basin Kingdom, a book many saw as the most important history of Mormonism, became the principal driver of a dramatic turn towards scholarly truth in the study of Mormon history. His approach gained a temporary foothold in the governing bureaucracy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he became its church historian. That productive period of professional scholarship from inside the LDS Church ended with a controversial closing of the History Division, which had brought too much candor for some church leaders. Arrington and his colleagues had lit a spark, though, that would continue to energize Mormon historiography. The many scholars whom he mentored, encouraged, supported, and collaborated with helped maintain the growth of a newly enriched field of research and publication, bringing the historical record that had always been an essential aspect of Mormon identity into wide examination and discourse.

Gregory Prince follows his well-regarded biography of LDS President David O. McKay with the story of another key figure in the modern history of Mormonism. Leonard Arrington, a gregarious and generous history entrepreneur, used his success to advance the careers of many others and played a key role in the intellectual development of Mormonism by broadening Mormons’ understanding of themselves. Employing Arrington’s massive personal record and dozens of interviews with his associates, Prince provides the most complete account yet of the remarkable successes and failures of this longtime face of Mormon history. [Publisher]

Award Winner
Arrington, Leonard J.
Historiography
Biography
Mormon Studies (academic discipline)

A Wall Between Church and Academy
Critical Foundations of Mormon Apologetics
D. Michael Quinn: Mormon Historian
Ezra Taft Benson, Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Emergence of a Conspiracy Culture within the Mormon Church
First Vision : Memory and Mormon Origins
“For the Power is In Them” : Leonard Arrington and the Founders of Exponent II
Gay Rights and the Mormon Church : Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences
Gender and Missionary Work
Gerontocracy and the Future of Mormonism
Joseph Fielding Smith’s Evolving Views on Race: The Odyssey of a Mormon Apostle-President
LDS Church Presidency Years
LDS Church Presidency Years, 1985-1994
Media as compromise : a cultural history of Mormonism and new communication technology in twentieth-century America
Restless Pilgrim : Andrew Jenson's Quest for Latter-day Saint History
Sixty Years of BYU Studies Quarterly, 1959-2019: The Narrative and the Numbers
Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism
The Intellectual Cultures of Mormonism : Faith, Reason, and the Apologetic Enterprise
The LDS Gospel Topics Series : A Scholarly Engagement
The Office of Church Recorder: A Conversation with Elder Steven E. Snow
The Old Guard and Rearguard Actions : Professionalization and the Church Historian's Office
The Politics of Mormon History
The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender
Thunder From the Right : Ezra Taft Benson in Mormonism and Politics
True and Faithful : Joseph Fielding Smith as Mormon Historian and Theologian
Watchman on the Tower : Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right

A Commentary on Stephen G. Taggart's Mormonism's Negro Policy : Social and Historical Origins
A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Adventures of a Church Historian
A Further Inquiry Into the Historicity of the Book of Mormon
A Gift Given, A Gift Taken : Washing, Anointing, and Blessing the Sick among Mormon Women
A Historical Survey of the Full-time Institutes of Religion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1926-1966
A History of Dialogue, Part Four : A Tale of Two Cities, 1987-92
A History of Dialogue, Part One : The Early Years, 1965-1971
A History of Dialogue, Part Three : 'Coming of Age' in Utah, 1982-1987
A History of Dialogue, Part Two : Struggle Toward Maturity, 1971-1982
All That Glitters : Uncovering Fool's Gold in Book of Mormon Archaeology
A Mormon Chronicle : The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876
An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon
An Economic Interpretation of the 'Word of Wisdom'
A New Climate of Liberation : A Tribute to Fawn McKay Brodie, 1915-1981
An Illustrated History of the History Division of the LDS Church, 1972-82
A Soldier in North Africa and Italy, 1943-1946; A Pictorial History
At Sword's Point, Part 1 : A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858
Audacious Women : Early British Mormon Immigrants
B. H. Roberts : Studies of the Book of Mormon
Blood of the Prophets : Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Boyd K. Packer : A Watchman on the Tower
Brigham Young : American Moses
Brigham Young and the Expanding American Frontier
Campus in Crisis : BYU, 1911
Career Apostates : Reflections on the Works of Jerald and Sandra Tanner
Charles C. Rich : Mormon General and Western Frontiersman
Church History and Modern Revelation
Church Politics and Sonia Johnson : The Central Conundrum
Compilation on the Negro in Mormonism
David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism
Doves and Serpents : The Activities of Leonard Arrington as Church Historian 1972-1982
Elijah Abel and the Changing Status of Blacks Within Mormonism
Establishing Zion : The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-69
Faith and History : The Snell Controversy
Fawn McKay Brodie : A Biographer's Life
From Quaker to Latter-day Saint : Bishop Edwin D. Woolley
Great Basin Kingdom : An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900
Harold B. Lee : Prophet and Seer
Historian as Entrepreneur : A Personal Essay
History of Idaho
Homeward to Zion : The Mormon Migration from Scandinavia
House of Mourning : A Biocultural History of the Mountain Meadows Massacre
Hugh B. Brown : His Life and Thought
Innocent Blood : Essential Narratives of the Mountain Meadows Massacre
Institutes of Religion
Is There No Help For the Widow's Son?
Joseph Fielding Smith : Sixth President of the Church
Joseph's Temples : The Dynamic Relationship Between Freemasonry and Mormonism
Lengthen Your Stride : The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball
Leonard James Arrington (1917-1999) : A Bibliography
Leonard J. Arrington : A Historian's Life
Letters of Brigham Young to His Sons
Lowell L. Bennion : Teacher, Counselor, Humanitarian
Magic Valley Pioneers : A Photographic Record of N. W. and Edna Corn Arrington
Manchester Mormons : The Journal of William Clayton 1840 to 1842
Massacre at Mountain Meadows : An American Tragedy
Mixed Messages on the Negro Doctrine : An Interview with Lester Bush
Mormon Answer to Skepticism : Why Joseph Smith Wrote the Book of Mormon
Mormon Enigma : Emma Hale Smith
Mormonism in Transition : A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930
Mormonism's Negro Doctrine : An Historical Overview
Mormonism's Negro Policy : Social and Historical Origins
Mormonism Unvailed : Or, a Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion From Its Rise to the Present Time
Mormon Sisters : Women in Early Utah
Mormon Women and Depression
Nauvoo on My Mind
New Views of Mormon History : A Collection of Essays in Honor of Leonard J. Arrington
On Being a Mormon Historian (and its Aftermath)
Perpetuation of a Myth : Mormon Danites in Five Western Novels, 1840-1890
Personal Conscience and Priesthood Authority
Process Philosophy & Mormon Thought
Reflections of a Mormon Historian : Leonard J. Arrington on the New Mormon History
Religion and Sexuality : Three American Communal Experiments in the Nineteenth Century
Religion and the Denial of History
Remembering Leonard : February 15, 1999
Rescue of the 1856 Handcart Companies
Saints, Slaves, and Blacks : The Changing Place of Black People within Mormonism
Salamander : The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders
Scholarship and the Future of the Book of Mormon
Since 1950 : Creators and Creations of Mormon History
Sisters and Little Saints : One Hundred Years of Primary
Solemn Covenant : The Mormon Polygamous Passage
Some Reflections on the New Mormon History
Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood
Succession in the Church
Ten Years in Camelot : A Personal Memoir
The Adam-God Doctrine
The Book of Mormon--A Literal Translation?
The Challenge of Honesty
The Changing World of Mormonism
The Economic Role of Pioneer Mormon Women
The Emergence of Brigham Young and the Twelve to Mormon Leadership, 1830-1841
'The ERA is a Moral Issue' : The Mormon Church, LDS Women, and the Defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment
The Founding of the LDS Church Historical Department, 1972
The Founding of the L.D.S. Institutes of Religion
The Fuhrer's New Clothes : Helmuth Huebener and the Mormons in the Third Reich
'The Fulness of the Priesthood' : The Second Anointing in Latter-day Saint Theology and Practice
The Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants
The Latter-day Saints in the Modern Day World : An Account of Contemporary Mormonism
The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership : A Contemporary Chronology
The Lord's University : Freedom and Authority at BYU
The Mormon Concept of a Mother in Heaven
The Mormon Establishment
The Mormon Experience : A History of the Latter-day Saints
The Mormon Hierarchy, 1832-1932 : An American Elite
The Mormon Menace : Violence and Anti-Mormonism in the Postbellum South
The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
The New Biology and Mormon Theology
The Original Book of Mormon Manuscript
The Orson Pratt--Brigham Young Controversies : Conflict Within the Quorums, 1853-1868
The Poet and the Murderer : A True Story of Literary Crime and the Art of Forgery
The Priesthood Reform Movement, 1908-1922
The Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine : From Joseph Smith to Progressive Theology
The Reliability of Joseph Smith's History
The Religious Environment in Which Mormonism Arose
'The Renegade' and the 'Reorganites' : Fawn Brodie and Her Varied Encounters with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Search for Truth and Meaning in Mormon History
The Separation of Church and State in Mormon Theory and Practice
The Spalding Theory Then and Now
The Story of the Latter-day Saints
The Story of the Mormons : From the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901
The Word of Wisdom in Early Nineteenth-Century Perspective
The Writing of Joseph Smith's History
Thus Saith the Lord : The Role of Prophets and Revelation in the Kingdom of God
Utah's Educational Innovation : LDS Religion Classes, 1890-1929
Utah's Heritage
William B. Smith : In the Shadow of a Prophet
Women and Ordination : Introduction to the Biblical Context
Women of Covenant : The Story of Relief Society
Writing 'Mormonism's Negro Doctrine : An Historical Overview' (1973) : Context and Reflections, 1998