Kirjahaku

Among historians of Utah and the American West, few names have greater resonance than Bernard DeVoto, Dale Morgan, Juanita Brooks, Wallace Stegner, and Fawn Brodie. Each of these writers made enduring contributions not only to our knowledge of the American West but also to our view of the region and its history. In many ways their writing set the standard for scholarship and interpretation, and their influence is still felt today.Yet they were not flawless. As Gary Topping explains in this, the first comprehensive appraisal of their work, each had serious shortcomings. DeVoto and Stegner, master storytellers, distorted their histories with excessive use of literary and artistic techniques; Morgan, the thorough researcher, failed to see larger contexts and interpretive possibilities; Brooks, courageous in finding damning new information on the Mountain Meadows massacre, stopped short of drawing conclusions that might alienate her from her fellow Mormons; and Brodie, psychobiographer extraordinaire, nonetheless succumbed to reading too much into the lives of her subjects based on her own emotions and conflicts.All five writers experienced Mormon Utah in the formative stages of their lives and, whether they wanted to or not, fashioned their work on the American West under that indelible influence. Topping shows ultimately how, despite weaknesses, each created exemplary models of diligent research and narrative elegance while establishing new traditions in western historical scholarship.

One of the foremost American historians of his generation, Leonard J. Arrington (1913-1999) revolutionized the writing of Mormon history. Through the publication of his groundbreaking "Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, " as well as numerous other publications, he established the dominant interpretation of the Mormon experience. Yet until now, there has been little analysis of his contribution to western history.Focusing on Arrington's intellectual career, Gary Topping examines the facets of Arrington's life that influenced his historical ideas: how his Idaho farm background shaped his values and interests, and how his nontraditional upbringing differed from that of other young Mormons. Topping also offers a critical evaluation and major new interpretation of Arrington's works that will likely spark controversy in the scholarly community.Topping re-examines Arrington's role in founding and promoting what is known as the New Mormon History. Arrington has been criticized for relying on the assistance of numerous staff members in the church's History Division, but Topping shows this collaborative approach to have been in keeping with the cooperative spirit of Mormonism. Yet, as Topping relates, Arrington's efforts to make archival material more accessible to the public were undermined by the more conservative wing of the church hierarchy, which released him from his position as Church Historian in 1982.Both an engaging biography and a sharp appraisal of Arrington's methods and interpretive work, Topping's book expands on Arrington's own autobiography by offering the first thorough analysis of his contributions.

D. Michael Quinn (1944-2021) was one of Mormonism's greatest historians, though his books have profound relevance to Utah and western history as well. After completing his doctorate in history at Yale University in three years, he taught at Brigham Young University from 1976 to 1988. His treatment of difficult themes in Mormon history drew controversy, which led to resignation from his academic position and to his eventual excommunication from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His large, elaborately documented books, such as his three volumes on the Mormon hierarchy and his Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, set a new standard for Mormon historical scholarship.