BYU Studies Quarterly BYU Studies Quarterly

Volume 15 Issue 3 Article 11

7-1-1975

The Restoration Movement: Essays in Mormon History F. Mark F. Mark

McKiernan, Alma R. Blair, and Paul M. Edwards McKiernan, Alma R. Blair, and Paul M. Edwards

Chad J. Flake

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Flake, Chad J. (1975) "The Restoration Movement: Essays in Mormon History F. Mark McKiernan, Alma R. Blair, and Paul M. Edwards," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 15 : Iss. 3 , Article 11. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol15/iss3/11

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Studies Quarterly by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact scholarsarchive@byu.edu, ellen_amatangelo@byu.edu.

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mckiernan F mark alma R blair paul M edwards ed-itors the restoration movement essays inhi mormon historylawrence kansas coronado press 1973 10.001000reviewed by chad J flake curator of special collections harold Blee library brigham young university

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Flake: <em>The Restoration Movement: Essays in Mormon History</em> F. Ma

Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1975

BOOK REVIEWS 373

the restoration movement is a collection of essays on var-iousiouslous facets of mormon history written by scholars of thechurch of jesus christ of latter day saints and the reorga-nized church of jesus christ of latter day saints LDS andRLDS following an introductory essay chapters 181 8 con-cern thernthemselvesselves with the early church in new york kirtlandmissouri and nauvoo and with the movements arising justafter the death of joseph smith this covers the first 5030 yearsof the restoration the next 112 years are represented by thefinal four chapters either as summary articles or as articles onsome aspect of mormon history subsequent to 1860

apparently the editors hoped for a work with some con-tinuity which would provide in one volume a general outlineof the restoration movement the principal weakness of thebook however lies in the absence of uniformity certain arti-cles broadly survey a particular era while others focus nar-rowly on a specific problem more disconcerting than thissomesorne of the essays were obviously written for the expert whileothers appear to have been written for the novice the editorsexplain that they did a minimum of editing in order to retainthe flavor of the variousvarious backgrounds A larger editorial rolehowever would have improved the book

the work begins with an introductory essay by klaus Jhansen while one would expect an introductory essay to in-troduce the book it is becoming more prevalent in scholarlybooks to have an introduction that only generally relates to thesubject but that doesndoean t make it less objectionable particular-ly when the introduction is quite esoteric hansen s essay is apretentious look at mormonism and its relationship to othercontemporary millenarian religions which ends with the ques-tion whether mormonism as a cultural entity even now existsAs john sorenson has aptly commented on this essay hardlya concept in the historian s and behavioral scientist s armamen-tarium is omitted all somehow part of or related to mormonculture yet we never learn what that elusive thing is whenwe reach the concluding query Is it possible that as a dis-tinct cultural entity mormonism liashasilas more or less ceased toexist the vagueness of cultural and mormonism hasrobbed the question of meaning 11 dialogue 82 p 19

the next two essays by larry porter and max H parkin aresummaries of the church in new york and ohio distilled re-spectivelyspect ively from porter s dissertation and parkin s thesis dr

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BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 15, Iss. 3 [1975], Art. 11

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol15/iss3/11

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porter s essay leads one again to wonder if except for the re-vival controversy there is anything new to be found in the his-tory of the church in new york parkin provides a good in-troductiontroduction to the history of kirtland as well as a rather super-ficial discussion of the elements which eventually caused theexpulsion of the church from ohio this article and the recentcharles redd lecture on the economics of kirtland by marvinhill larry wimmerWiminer and keith rooker 15 january 1975 atbrigham young university point up the need for considerableadditional work on two aspects of mormon kirtland econom-ics and polygamy

following these are two essays on the missouri periodboth more restricted in scope warren jennings discusses socialconflict in jackson county where given the mormon zionismits northern background and its seeming willingness for theparticipation of blacks there was bound to be conflict inretrospect the point seems so obvious that one hates to see thejackson county episode so summarily dismissed

F mark mckiernan does better for the last part of the mis-souri phase picking up the story with smith and rigdon com-ing into far west and ending it with their arrest As in hisbook the voice of one crying inin the wilderness dr mckier-nan seems to place far too much eniemphasisphasis on sidney rigdonhis reliance on reed peck for the salt sermon seems a bitrisky as does his uncritical acceptance of corrill and huntthere are also somesorne clear errors for example his assertion onpage 125 that the entire mormon hierarchy crumbled as a re-sult of desertions

robert flanders takes up the story of nauvoo As in hiskingdom hyby the mississippi flanders emphasis is on failureand liehelleile misses the point of nauvoo nallNaLInatinauvooVOO like the classictragic character should not be viewed by its final failure butfor what it almost accomplished

T edgar lyon s article on nauvoo and the council oftwelve and alma blair s essay on the beginnings of the RLDSchurch constitute the highpointshighpoints of the volume lyon s nau-voo expertise isis apparent as liehelleile traces the evolution of thecouncil of twelve as a ruling body a themetherne that has been en-larged upon by michael quinn in the first issue of the journalof mormon history blair s treatment of the emergence ofthe RLDS church is characterized by insight and candor littletouched by polemic

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Flake: <em>The Restoration Movement: Essays in Mormon History</em> F. Ma

Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1975

BOOK REVIEWS 375

william D russell follows with an essay on jamesjarnesjaines Jstrang whose story has been told elsewhere as ably russell sidea that strang was a serious threat to brigham young isisunjustifiable strang certainly took away somesorne of the member-ship of the church but there is scant evidence for the ideathat young s leadership with the majority was ever in doubt

the next three essays are of little consequence leonardarrington and michael quinn s essay on the church in thefar west isis particularly disappointing in view of the highquality work arrington liashasilas produced in the past davis bit-ton s article on life styles states inin effect that the utah mormons built homeshorneshoines with what was available ate what was avail-able with due regard for the word of wisdom and didwhat most other people oilonoll011 the frontier did for leisure activitiesthe value of the article lies in the quotes from various diariesjames allenalienailen s essay isis a pleasant susummarysuminaryminaryseminary of Mormomormonismnisin inthe twentieth century for those who do not have access to hisalofAloralormonismmormonismmonism inhi the twentieth century updated in dialoguespring 1972the final essay by paul M edwards concerns the supreme

directional control battle within the RLDS church after tilethetiietlleascendency of frederick M smith his statement that theproblem raged in the 1960s requires elaboration and his con-cluding analogy between the RLDS church and the nationseems rather dubious

finally a word should be said about bookmaking in ad-dition to containing numerous errors the book is cheaplybound and pcorlypoorly printed the review copy for instance hasa blank page 191 for the price one would hope for a betterjob

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BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 15, Iss. 3 [1975], Art. 11

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol15/iss3/11