Mormon History

In Revelation, Resistance, and Mormon Polygamy, historian Merina Smith explores the introduction of polygamy in Nauvoo, a development that unfolded amid scandal and resistance. Smith considers the ideological, historical, and even psychological elements of the process and captures the emotional and cultural detail of this exciting and volatile period in Mormon history.

This book is a fascinating new approach to the Book of Mormon that offers new insights into how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. Readers have always known the book contains language from the King James Bible, but what about all the non-biblical language? Where did Joseph Smith acquire his lexicon? In his earliest known personal history (1832), Joseph Smith, Jr., said he had an "intimate acquaintance with those of different denominations." Later, when asked about the establishment of the Church, Joseph began with his "experience while in my juvenile years, say from 6 years old up ...

Among all the various figures in 19th century America who left controversial legacies, it is hard to find one as influential as Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Mormonism, and the Latter-Day Saint movement. Revered as a prophet on the level of Moses by some, reviled as a perpetrator of large-scale fraud by others, what everyone can agree on is that Joseph Smith founded a religious movement that played a crucial role in the settlement of the West, especially in Utah.

Parley P. Pratt began to work on The Key to the Science of Theology in San Francisco in August 1851, just before leaving for his mission to Chile. He continued writing it while in Chile. He finished the manuscript upon his return to Utah in 1853. The manuscript remained unpublished, however, until 1855 when Parley found a publisher in England. Parley's book represented a lifetime of thought and built on ideas first propounded in Pratt's earlier writings, especially missionary tracts stemming from his years in England. The impact of The Key to the Science of Theology was unparalleled. One Latter-day Saint diarist of the 19th century observed: "We had every encouragement to read the Church publications: The Voice of Warning; the Pearl of Great Price; and Key to Theology."

After decades of opposition, the Latter-day Saints have dedicated the Salt Lake Temple, a mighty symbol of their industry and faith. Now, with a new century on the horizon, the Saints are optimistic about the future and ready to spread the Savior's message of peace across the globe. Boldly, Nobly, and Independent is the third book in Saints, a new, four-volume narrative history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fast-paced and meticulously researched, Saints recounts true stories of Latter-day Saints across the globe.

The Mormon Church entered the public square on LGBT issues by joining forces with traditional marriage proponents in Hawaii in 1993. Since then, the church has been a significant player in the ongoing saga of LGBT rights within the United States and at times has carried decisive political clout. Gregory Prince draws from over 50,000 pages of public records, private documents, and interview transcripts to capture the past half century of the Mormon Church’s attitudes on homosexuality.

Three Nephites. One star. A divine quest that will shake empires—and eternity. When an angel descends with a heavenly summons, three chosen men leave behind everything—family, homeland, safety—to follow a star blazing across the sky. Their destination: the birth of the Son of God. Their path: perilous, holy, and utterly unknown. Jared, a master of the stars, can chart the heavens—but not the unraveling of his own fate. Totec, a warrior prince, must conquer the pride that threatens to destroy their mission from within. Nephi, prophet and leader, bears the sacred call of God—and a ...

In June 1846, General Stephen Watts Kearny rode out of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, with two thousand soldiers, bound for California. At the time, the nation was hell-bent on expansion: James K. Polk had lately won the presidency by threatening England over the borders in Oregon, while Congress had just voted to annex Texas. After Mexico declared war on the United States, Kearny’s Army of the West was sent out, carrying orders to occupy Mexican territory. Winston Groom recounts the amazing adventure and danger that Kearny and his troops encountered on the trail.

Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities. At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith.

According to Joseph Smith, in September of 1823, an angel appeared to him and directed him to a hill near his home. Buried there, Smith found a box containing a stack of thin metal sheets, gold in color and covered with what appeared to be ancient engravings. Exactly four years later, the angel instructed Smith to translate the plates into English. When the text was published, a new religion was born.

This one-of-a-kind book lists hundreds of fulfilled prophecies given by Joseph Smith, Jr. by the day of the year pronounced. It is exciting to see how the Lord Jesus Christ gave such an important gift to his servant Joseph, the founder of the Latter-day Saint movement. Included at the end is an explanation of prophecies and how some are based upon faithfulness or actions by the reciever. In the end, this important work will by another foundational stone to complement the study of scriptures, sincere prayer, and faithful study of God's work in the latter days to strengthen and build ...

In 2007, Dr. Martin MacNeill - a doctor, lawyer, and Mormon bishop - discovered his wife of 30 years dead in the bathtub of their Pleasant Grove, Utah, home, her face bearing the scars of a facelift he had persuaded her to undergo just a week prior. At first the death of 50-year-old Michele MacNeill, a former beauty queen and mother of eight, appeared natural. But days after the funeral, when Dr. MacNeill moved his much younger mistress into the family home, his children grew suspicious.

On April 7, 1844, Joseph Smith gave a sermon in Nauvoo, Illinois, to nearly 20,000 church members. A few weeks earlier, a church member and close friend of Joseph named King Follett was killed in an accident. This well-known event in Nauvoo led Joseph Smith to comment specifically on Follett’s death and to address what Joseph called “[T]he subject of the dead”.

In the wake of Joseph Smith Jr.’s murder in 1844, his following splintered, and some allied themselves with a maverick Mormon apostle, Lyman Wight. Sometimes called the "Wild Ram of Texas," Wight took his splinter group to frontier Texas, a destination to which Smith, before his murder, had considered moving his followers, who were increasingly unwelcome in the Midwest. He had instructed Wight to take a small band of church members from Wisconsin to establish a Texas colony that would prepare the ground for a mass migration of the membership.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. And when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life seems too good to be true.

In 2003, the Special Forces soldiers entered an area later called "the most dangerous place in Afghanistan". Here, where the line between civilians and armed zealots was indistinct, they illustrated the Afghan proverb "I destroy my enemy by making him my friend." Fry recounts how they were seen as welcome guests rather than invaders. Soon after their deployment ended, the Pech Valley reverted to turmoil. Their success was never replicated.

The Secret of Eliza’s Journal By Taylor Hunter Kimball I never expected to find a murder buried in my own family’s past. Ephraim, Utah, was supposed to be my fresh start—a quiet town where I could teach criminal justice at Snow College, restore forgotten pioneer graves, and leave behind the chaos of big-city crime. But the day I uncovered my ancestor’s hidden journal, everything changed. Eliza Kimball’s words weren’t just faded ink on fragile pages—they were a confession. A warning. A key to a mystery that refused to stay buried. As I pored over her 19th-century entries, I ...

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is 12, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

The book is a controversial and critical account of the early history of the LDS Church. Bennett's work offers a scathing review of Joseph Smith and the practices of the Mormon community in Nauvoo, Illinois. He covers various topics, including the church's political and social practices, alleged secret rites, and polygamy, which was a deeply controversial issue at the time.

The relationship between early Mormons and the US was marked by anxiety and hostility. Nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints looked forward to apocalyptic events that would unseat corrupt governments across the globe. Mormons envisioned divine deliverance by way of plagues, natural disasters, foreign invasions, American Indian raids, slave uprisings, or civil war unleashed on American people. For the Saints, these violent images promised a national rebirth that would vouchsafe the protections of the US Constitution and end their oppression.