'Unvarnished' Mormon history lectures

10 speeches make profound contribution on LDS past, culture

By Dennis Lythgoe
Deseret Morning News
Published: Friday, Dec. 3, 2004 2:28 p.m. MST
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THE COLLECTED LEONARD J. ARRINGTON MORMON HISTORY LECTURES, Utah State University Press, 283 pages.

Established in 1995 by the Special Collections and Archives of Utah State University in Logan, the Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture Series specifically honored the unparalleled contribution made to Mormon history by its most important historian. Arrington, an Idaho native trained as an economist at the University of North Carolina, went on to become a legend in his own time as an excellent teacher of economics and history at USU.

In the classroom or at the pulpit, Arrington was an incomparable presence — charismatic, witty, affable, his head filled with wonderful stories from history — and he could command a room as few historians have ever done. He was also infinitely approachable, willing and interested in helping the struggling student, the graduate student or the historical colleague.

Upon the publication of his seminal book, "Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints," in 1958, he had made the jump from the field of economics to the field of history. It was Arrington who spearheaded both the organization of the Western History Association and the Mormon History Association, which led to the Western Historical Quarterly, the Journal of Mormon History, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

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During the 1960s, Arrington researched and wrote numerous biographies and institutional histories that sparked the careers of many younger scholars who looked to him for inspiration. In 1973 he was appointed LDS Church historian, the first time a bona fide scholar had ever held the position; and he assumed the newly created Lemuel Redd Chair of Western History at Brigham Young University. During a highly productive period of 10 years (called by many "the years of Camelot") Arrington widely encouraged the writing of Mormon history and created a much more open intellectual atmosphere than had ever pervaded the LDS Church Archives.

His two definitive works are "The Mormon Experience," a work intended to appeal to the non-Mormon reader, co-authored with Davis Bitton, and "American Moses: A Biography of Brigham Young." Arrington died in 1999.

The 10 lectures in this book are by prominent Mormon or Western historians. The first, by Arrington himself, "Faith and Intellect as Partners in Mormon History," carefully prepares the way for the open, unvarnished approach to history followed by his students.

Other lecturers in the collection include Richard L. Bushman ("Making Space for the Mormons"); Richard E. Bennett ("My Idea Is to Go Right Through Right Side Up With Care: The Exodus as Reformation"); Howard R. Lamar ("The Theater in Mormon Life and Culture"); Claudia L. Bushman ("Mormon Domestic Life in the 1870s").

Kenneth Godfrey ("The Importance of the Temple in Understanding the Latter-day Saint Nauvoo Experience Then and Now"); Jan Shipps ("Signifying Sainthood"); Donald Worster ("Encountering Mormon Country"); Laurel Thatcher Ulrich ("Rachel's Death: How Memory Challenges History"); and Ross Peterson ("I Didn't Want to Leave the House, but He Compelled Me To: A Personal Examination of a Mormon Family").

Each of these lectures makes a profound and interesting contribution to the study of Mormon history and will be of special interest to all Mormon historians as well as the numerous Mormon history "buffs" who read and write about the Mormon culture.

E-mail: dennis@desnews.com

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