Item Detail
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32896
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0
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1
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English
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Watchman on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right
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The Western Historical Quarterly
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2021
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53
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1
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Norman, OK
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The Western Historical Quarterly
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91-92
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"'Watchman on the Tower' is a scrupulously researched, fast-paced, and concise analysis of one of Mormonism’s most controversial figures: Ezra Taft Benson. To be sure, this is not another biography of Benson. Rather, Harris is more concerned with Benson’s politics, and, in particular, he sets out to explain how Benson developed “a radical form of conservativism” that helped solidify a connection between the LDS Church and the Republican Party over the last half century. Harris identifies three key moments in Benson’s ideological transformation: his mission to help needy Saints in Europe after WWII, his eight years as Secretary of Agriculture under Dwight D. Eisenhower, and his affiliation with the John Birch Society." [author]