27607

Book

English

Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher

A House Full of Females : Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870

New York

Knopf

2017

484

[2018 Mormon Historical Association Winner for Best Book]

A stunning and sure-to-be controversial book that pieces together, through more than two dozen nineteenth-century diaries, letters, albums, minute-books, and quilts left by first-generation Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, the never-before-told story of the earliest days of the women of Mormon "plural marriage," whose right to vote in the state of Utah was given to them by a Mormon-dominated legislature as an outgrowth of polygamy in 1870, fifty years ahead of the vote nationally ratified by Congress, and who became political actors in spite of, or because of, their marital arrangements. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, writing of this small group of Mormon women who've previously been seen as mere names and dates, has brilliantly reconstructed these textured, complex lives to give us a fulsome portrait of who these women were and of their "sex radicalism"--the idea that a woman should choose when and with whom to bear children. [Publisher]

Award Winner
Plural marriage
Plural marriage, legislative history
Plural marriage, politics
Plural marriage, woman suffrage

13

190

Mormon Canonizing Authority and Women's Gender Theologies, 1890-1942
Mormon Women's History : Beyond Biography
Roundtable: A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870
Runaway Wives, 1830-1860
Small Means, Great Things
Sounding Mormonism
Temples Rising : A Heritage of Sacrifice
The Council of Fifty, Orson Hyde, and the “Last Charge”: A Re-evaluation
The Next Mormons : How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church
The Power of Godliness : Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology
The Word of Wisdom in Contemporary American Mormonism : Perceptions and Practice
Why Don't Mormons Have a Lost Cause?
“You Had Better Let Mrs Young Have Any Thing She Wants” : What a Joseph Smith Pay Order Teaches about the Plight of Missionary Wives in the Early Church

"A Pentecost and Endowment Indeed" : Six Eyewitness Accounts of the Kirtland Temple Experience
"A Weary Traveler" : The 1848-50 Diary of Zina D. H. Young
"As a bird sings" : Hannah Tapfield King, Poetess and Pioneer
"Don't Go Aboard the Saluda!" : William Dunbar, LDS Emigrants
"Liberty to the Downtrodden" : Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer
"Saviors on Mount Zion" : Mormon Sacramentalism, Mortality, and the Baptism for the Dead
"This Institution Is a Good One" : The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 17 March 1842 to 16 March 1844
'A Banner is Unfurled' : Mormonism's Ensign Peak
'All Things Move in Order in the City' : The Nauvoo Diary of Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs
'Almost Too Intolerable a Burthen' : The Winter Exodus from Missouri, 1838-39
'At Their Peril' : Utah Law and the Case of Plural Wives, 1850-1900
'For This Ordinance Belongeth to My House' : The Practice of Baptism for the Dead Outside the Nauvoo Temple
'I Have Eaten Nearly Everything Imaginable' : Pioneer Diet
'Living the Principle' of Plural Marriage : Mormon Women, Utopia, and Female Sexuality in the Nineteenth Century
'Regeneration - Now and Evermore!' Mormon Polygamy and the Physical Rehabilitation of Humankind
'The Fulness of the Priesthood' : The Second Anointing in Latter-day Saint Theology and Practice
'This is the Place' : Myth and Mormondom
4 Zinas : A Story of Mothers and Daughters on the Mormon Frontier
A Demographic Examination of Household Heads in Salt Lake City, Utah, 1850-1870
A Demographic Portrait of the Mormons, 1830-1980
A Feminist Among the Mormons : Charlotte Ives Cobb Godbe Kirby
A Gift Given, A Gift Taken : Washing, Anointing, and Blessing the Sick among Mormon Women
A Little-Known Defense of Polygamy from the Mormon Press in 1842
A New Look at the Alleged Little Known Discourse by Joseph Smith
Abraham Lincoln and the Mormons : Another Legacy of Limited Freedom
Adopted or Indentured, 1850-1870 : Native Children in Mormon Households
Alexander H. Smith : Remembering a Son of Joseph and Emma Smith
All Things Right : A Biography of Vilate Murray Kimball
Amasa Mason Lyman, Mormon Apostle and Apostate : A Study in Dedication
An Advocate for Women : the Public Life of Emmeline B. Wells, 1870-1920
An American Prophet's Record : The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith
At Sword's Point, Part 1 : A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858
Audacious Women : Early British Mormon Immigrants
Battle for the Ballot : Essays on Woman Suffrage in Utah, 1870-1896
Beehive House
Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, One of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Blood of the Prophets : Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Boundaries Between : The Southern Paiutes, 1775-1995
Brigham Young : American Moses
Brigham Young : Pioneer Prophet
Brigham Young and The Twelve in Quincy : A Return to the Eye of the Missouri Storm, 26 April 1839
Causes of the Utah War Reconsidered
Celebrating Cultural Identity : Pioneer Day in Nineteenth-Century Mormonism
Cholera and Its Impact on Nineteenth-Century Mormon Migration
Clothing the Indians and Strengthening the Saints : Organized Activity of Mormon Women during the 'Lapse' of the Relief Society, 1844-1867
Conflict in the Countryside : Rural Communities in the 1840s Mormon War
Dear Ellen : Two Mormon Women and Their Letters
Deaths in Early Nauvoo, 1839-46, and Winter Quarters, 1846-48
Divorce among Mormon Polygamists : Extent and Explanations
Doing the Works of Abraham : Mormon Polygamy : Its Origin, Practice, and Demise
Early Mormon Polygamy Defenses
Eleanor McLean and the Murder of Parley P. Pratt
Eliza R. Snow : The Complete Poetry
Eliza and Her Sisters
Encyclopedia of Mormonism : The History, Scripture, Doctrine, and Procedures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Exemplary Elder : The Life and Missionary Diaries of Perrigrine Sessions, 1814-1893
Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism
Feminist Implications of Mormon Polygamy
From Assassination to Expulsion : Two Years of Distrust, Hostility, and Violence
Gentle Persuaders : Utah's First Women Legislators
Gifts of the Spirit : Women's Share
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
Health and Medicine among the Latter-day Saints : Science, Sense, and Scripture
Heber C. Kimball : Mormon Patriarch and Pioneer
Herbal Remedies : God's Medicine?
High Risk Childbearing : Fertility and Infant Mortality on the American Frontier
How Common the Principle? Women as Plural Wives in 1860
Identifying the Earliest Mormon Polygamists, 1841-44
Illustrated Periodical Images of Mormons, 1850-1860
In Heaven as It Is on Earth : Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death
In Sacred Loneliness : The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith
In Their Own Words : Women and the Story of Nauvoo
Joseph Smith : Rough Stone Rolling
Joseph Smith III : Pragmatic Prophet
Joseph Smith's Introduction of Temple Ordinances and the 1844 Mormon Succession Question
Joseph Smith's Performance of Marriages in Ohio
Joseph Smith's Polygamy
Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed, 1842-1845
Journal of the Southern Indian Mission : Diary of Thomas D. Brown
Journey to Zion : Voices from the Mormon Trail
LDS Pastors and Pastorates, 1852-55
Landmark Architecture for a Polygamous Family : The Brigham Young Domicile, Salt Lake City, Utah
Layered Lives : Boston Mormons and the Spatial Contexts of Conversion

Leaves from My Journal
Liberty to the Downtrodden : Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer
Life in Nauvoo, June 1844 : Vilate Kimball's Martyrdom Letters
Living the Principle : Mormon Polygamous Housing in Nineteenth-Century Utah
Manchester Mormons : The Journal of William Clayton 1840 to 1842
Mapping Historic Nauvoo
Mapping Mormonism : An Atlas of Latter-day Saint History
Marriage and Redemption : Mormon Polygamy in the Congressional Imagination, 1862-1887
Massacre at Mountain Meadows : An American Tragedy
Memory as Evidence : Dating Joseph Smith's Plural Marriages to Louisa Beaman, Zina Jacobs, and Presendia Buell
Mormon Land Rights in Caldwell and Daviess Counties and the Mormon Conflict of 1838 : New Findings and New Understandings
Mormon Midwife : The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions
Mormon Polygamous Families : Life in the Principle
Mormon Sisters : Women in Early Utah
Mormon Women and the Temple : Toward a New Understanding
Mormon Women, Other Women : Paradoxes and Challenges
Mormonism and Music : A History
Mormons at the Missouri : A History of the Latter-day Saints at Winter Quarters and at Kanesville, 1846-52--A Study in American Overland Trail Migration
Muslims Under the Mormon Eye : Theology, Rhetoric, and Personal Contacts, 1830-1910
Nauvoo Roots of Mormon Polygamy, 1841-46 : A Preliminary Demographic Report
Nauvoo West : The Mormons of the Iowa Shore
Newel and Lydia Bailey Knight's Kirtland Love Story and Historic Wedding
Nineteenth-Century Mormon Architecture and City Planning
No Place to Call Home : The 1807-1857 Life Writings of Caroline Barnes Crosby, Chronicler of Outlying Mormon Communities
No Toil nor Labor Fear : The Story of William Clayton
O My Children and Grandchildren : An Account of the Sealing of Amanda Barnes Smith to Joseph Smith
On the Mormon Question : Race, Sex, and Polygamy in the 1850s and the 1990s
Orson Hyde : The Olive Branch of Israel
Our Latter-day Hymns : The Stories and Messages
Parley P. Pratt : The Apostle Paul of Mormonism
Pentecost Continued : A Contemporaneous Account of the Kirtland Temple Dedication
People of Paradox : A History of Mormon Culture
Performing American Identity in Anti-Mormon Melodrama
Polygamy in Lorenzo Snow's Brigham City : An Architectural Tour
Preserving the Record and Memory of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 1842-92
Prophet in Zion : The Saga of George J. Adams
Relief Society Birth and Death Rituals : Women at the Gates of Mortality
Reminiscences of Latter-day Saints, Giving an Account of Much Individual Suffering Endured for Religious Conscience
Runaway Wives, 1830-1860
San Bernardino : The Rise and Fall of a California Community
Sex, Subalterns, and Steptoe : Army Behavior, Mormon Rage, and Utah War Anxieties
Sister-Wives and Suffragists : Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage, 1870-1896
Sisters in Spirit : Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective
Southern Cross Saints : The Mormons in Australia
Sustaining Charisma : Mormon Sectarian Culture and the Struggle for Plural Marriage, 1852-1890
The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri
The Affair of the "Runaways" : Utah's First Encounter with the Federal Officers : Part 1

The Autobiography of Hosea Stout
The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California
The Development of Early Latter-day Saint Marriage Rites, 1831-53
The Early Community of Christ Mission to "Redeem" the Church in Utah
The First Fifty Years of Relief Society : Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women's History
The Flag of the Kingdom of God
The Gathering of Zion : The Story of the Mormon Trail
The Genteel Gentile : Letters of Elizabeth Cumming, 1857-1858
The Gold Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith
The Grand Beehive
The History of Louisa Barnes Pratt : The Autobiography of a Mormon Missionary Widow and Pioneer;
The History of the Saints : Or, An Expose of Joe Smith and Mormonism
The Judiciary and the Common Law in Utah Territory, 1850-61
The Kingdom or Nothing : The Life of John Taylor, Militant Mormon
The Latter-day Saint Mission to India, 1851-56
The Legacy of Mormon Furniture
The Liberal Shall Be Blessed : Sarah M. Kimball
The Life and Thought of Orson Pratt
The McLellin Journals and Early Mormon History
The Missouri Mormon Experience
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 Press in Nauvoo, 1839-1846
The Mormon Question : Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America
The Mormon Reformation of 1856-1857 : The Rhetoric and the Reality
The Mormon Tradition
The Mormons and the Theatre, or the History of Theatricals in Utah, with Reminiscences and Comments, Humorous and Critical
The Mormons at Home : With some Incidents of Travel from Missouri to California, 1852-3
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
The Move South
The Nauvoo Endowment Companies, 1845-1846 : A Documentary History
The Overland Journey from Utah to California : Wagon Travel from the City of the Saints to the City of Angels
The People Are "Hogaffed or Humbugged" : The 1851-52 National Reaction to Utah's
"Runaway" Officers : Part 2

The Pioneer Camp of the Saints : The 1846 and 1847 Mormon Trail Journals of Thomas Bullock
The Salt Lake City 14th Ward Album Quilt, 1857 : Stories of the Relief Society Women and Their Quilt
The Significance of Nauvoo for Latter-day Saints
The Trial of Don Pedro Leon Lujan : The Attack Against Indian Slavery and Mexican Traders in Utah
The Tyrian and Its Mormon Passengers
The Utah Woolley Family : Descendants of Thomas Woolley and Sarah Coppock of Pennsylvania
The Viper on the Hearth : Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy
The Women of Mormondom
The Word of Wisdom in Early Nineteenth-Century Perspective
The Words of Joseph Smith : The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph
The Writing of Joseph Smith's History
Things in Heaven and Earth : The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet
Thomas Rhoads, Forgotten Mormon Pioneer of 1846
Touring Polygamous Utah with Elizabeth W. Kane, Winter 1872-1873
Toward a Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology
Trials of Discipleship : The Story of William Clayton, a Mormon
Utah and the Mormons : The History, Government, Doctrines, Customs, and Prospects of the Latter-day Saints
Wayward Saints : The Godbeites and Brigham Young
Wilford Woodruff's Journal, 1833-1898 : An Index
Winter Quarters : The 1846-48 Life Writings of Mary Haskin Parker Richards
Woman Suffrage in Territorial Utah
Women at Winter Quarters
Women of Covenant : The Story of Relief Society