The Best Books

[Rivers]

We had member of the Seventy come to stake conference recently.  He brought up the issue of having questions concerning church history, doctrine, policy, etc. He assured us that having questions is perfectly normal since everybody who is old enough to think has questions.  He repeatedly admonished us to seek answers by "study and by faith" while keeping the commandments. He also emphasized the importance of seeking out good sources or "the best books."

What are the best sources or "best books" for faithful Latter-Day Saints who want further enlightenment on historical issues?

Edited April 18, 2016 by Rivers

[Boanerges]

I'm sure your answers are going to vary. I'm also sure that not everyone here is going to agree with my choices. You specifically ask about historical issues, and my faith crisis did not involve historical issues.  I think books like Rough Stone Rolling fit the bill. I also like much of what Terryl Givens has written, particularly the more historical ones (although I do very much like Crucible of Doubt). Givens historical books that I have read include Wresting the Angel, People of Paradox, and By The Hand of Mormon. I plan to read The Viper on the Hearth.

I should also note that I take a very broad view of what the "best books" are, and I believe they include literature, writings of religious scholars, and even the sacred texts of other religions (such as the Quran). They can include scientific works as well. I believe Joseph Smith was a seeker of truth and embraced truth wherever he found it.

[Coreyb]

Personally I consider the "best books" to be works that use primary sources as the basis of their interpretive narrative. I try to find authors who do their best to be impartial or objective yet understand that personal bias will not allow this ideal to be fully realized. It doesn't really matter to me  whether the author is a believer or not, or what flavor of belief they have, so long as their work follows these standards. I have and respect books from authors like Dan Vogel and Will Bagley as well as Richard Bushman and Terryl Givens.

[Jeanne]

Having met the author several times, I was impressed with "The Keystone to Mormonism" by Ezra Evans. 

[JulieM]

1 minute ago, Coreyb said:

Personally I consider the "best books" to be works that use primary sources as the basis of their interpretive narrative. I try to find authors who do their best to be impartial or objective yet understand that personal bias will not allow this ideal to be fully realized. It doesn't really matter to me  whether the author is a believer or not, or what flavor of belief they have, so long as their work follows these standards. I have and respect books from authors like Dan Vogel and Will Bagley as well as Richard Bushman and Terryl Givens.

I would add D. Michael Quinn too.  What a historian he is (and his books are so well sourced with what seems like half his books filled with footnotes).

I like to read (or try to determine) what is documented by at least some records or statements from the time things happened and not pay too much attention to any spin put on them (by apologists or someone out of the church now).

[cinepro]

5 hours ago, Rivers said:

We had member of the Seventy come to stake conference recently.  He brought up the issue of having questions concerning church history, doctrine, policy, etc. He assured us that having questions is perfectly normal since everybody who is old enough to think has questions.  He repeatedly admonished us to seek answers by "study and by faith" while keeping the commandments. He also emphasized the importance of seeking out good sources or "the best books."

What are the best sources or "best books" for faithful Latter-Day Saints who want further enlightenment on historical issues?

I suspect the 70 meant "Whatever book it takes to maintain your faith in the Church and its doctrines". 

[mfbukowski]

6 hours ago, Rivers said:

We had member of the Seventy come to stake conference recently.  He brought up the issue of having questions concerning church history, doctrine, policy, etc. He assured us that having questions is perfectly normal since everybody who is old enough to think has questions.  He repeatedly admonished us to seek answers by "study and by faith" while keeping the commandments. He also emphasized the importance of seeking out good sources or "the best books."

What are the best sources or "best books" for faithful Latter-Day Saints who want further enlightenment on historical issues?

Wrestling the Angel, Teryl Givens. http://www.amazon.com/Wrestling-Angel-Foundations-Thought-Humanity/dp/0199794928

[Kevin Christensen]

1 hour ago, Jeanne said:

Having met the author several times, I was impressed with "The Keystone to Mormonism" by Ezra Evans. 

Is that the Arza Evans book?  I reviewed that on Amazon back in 2009.  If it's the same book, I have to say that I wasn't impressed. 

I do like Bushan, Richard L. Anderson, Larry Morris, Arrington, Givens,... all sorts. 

FWIW

Kevin Christensen

Canonsburg, PA

[Coreyb]

1 hour ago, JulieM said:

I would add D. Michael Quinn too.  What a historian he is (and his books are so well sourced with what seems like half his books filled with footnotes).

I like to read (or try to determine) what is documented by at least some records or statements from the time things happened and not pay too much attention to any spin put on them (by apologists or someone out of the church now).

I agree and have read all his major works. I didn't list him simply because I was drawing contrast between non believing scholars and faithful LDS scholars. As an excommunicated believer he doesn't easily fit either "side". I love Quinn's appendices as much as his interpretive text, but simply citing a lot of sources does not make something "better or best". I do think he sometimes reads too much into some of his sources. But who doesn't. He doesn't pretend to perfect objectivity or freedom from error.

[bdouglas]

My partial list:

I read Rough Stone Rolling when it first came out, and liked it ... although I did not agree with some parts. I recently re-read it (or part of it), and it leaves me cold. I prefer B. H. Roberts Comprehensive History of Church even though it is in some ways outdated.

Rise and Fall Of Nauvoo, by B. H. Roberts. I have a first edition of this book that was owned by my grandfather. I read it some time ago and am now re-reading it. I like Roberts' approach to telling church history. He is fair, but he never hides the fact that he is also a partisan, a witness to the reality of the Restoration.

Anything by Hugh Nibley, especially Approaching Zion.

I'm reading Teryl Givens biography of Parley P. Pratt.

Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks, also new treatment of the same subject by church historians Turley and other author whose name escapes me.

Michael Quinn's biography of J. Rueben Clark. This was written, I think, when Quinn was still at BYU and was still in the church. (I have never liked his Mormonism and the Magic World View. I mostly found it mostly unreadable.)

The Last Sorcerer, a bio of Isaac Newton. This bio deals with Newton's lifelong pursuit of alchemy and how, in many ways, his pursuit of and belief in alchemy (i.e., magic) led to his great discoveries. Reading this bio I thought of Joseph Smith's early belief in magic.

Summer Fire, fiction by Douglas Thayer. A good story about a Mormon boy who tries to do the right thing.

One Silent Sleepless Night, by Spencer Kimball; also bio of Pres. Kimball by Edward Kimball. These books demonstrate (as does Quinn's bio of J. Rueben Clark) that bios of church leaders can be honest and unsparing and still inspiring.

Edited April 18, 2016 by bdouglas

[Jeanne]

39 minutes ago, Kevin Christensen said:

Is that the Arza Evans book?  I reviewed that on Amazon back in 2009.  If it's the same book, I have to say that I wasn't impressed. 

I do like Bushan, Richard L. Anderson, Larry Morris, Arrington, Givens,... all sorts. 

FWIW

Kevin Christensen

Canonsburg, PA

Yes..but I liked it.  I like the others too that you mentioned.  Perhaps it means more to me because I met him and enjoyed his conversations.

[The Nehor]

"Embraced by the Light", the novelization of "Saturday's Warriors", and Goosebumps, Volume 12.

[Nevo]

9 hours ago, Rivers said:

What are the best sources or "best books" for faithful Latter-Day Saints who want further enlightenment on historical issues?

Well Done

• Alexander, Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890–1930
• Allen and Leonard, The Story of the Latter-day Saints
• Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses
• Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses
• Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900
• Backman, The Heavens Resound: A History of the Latter-day Saints in Ohio, 1830–1838
• Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism
• Daynes, More Wives Than One: Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840–1910
• Dodge and Harper, ed., Exploring the First Vision
• Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball
• Leonard, Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, a People of Promise
• Madsen, Walker, and Welch, ed., Sustaining the Law: Joseph Smith's Legal Encounters
• McKay and Dirkmaat, From Darkness Unto Light: Joseph Smith's Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon
• Prince and Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism
• Staker, Hearken O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith's Ohio Revelations
• Walker, Turley, and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows
• Welch, ed., Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844

Medium

• Bergera, Conflict in the Quorum
• Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
• Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi
• Hallwas and Launius, Cultures in Conflict: A Documentary History of the Mormon War in Illinois
• Hansen, Mormonism and the American Experience
• Hill, Joseph Smith: The First Mormon
• Hill, Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism
• Joseph Smith Papers
• LeSueur, The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri
• Mauss, All Abraham's Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage
• Mauss, The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation
• Reeve, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness
• Underwood, The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism
• Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents (5 vols.)

Medium-Rare / Rare

• Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896
• Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith
• Hales, Joseph Smith's Polygamy (3 vols.)
• Hardy, Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage
• Harris and Bringhurst, ed., The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History
• Launius and Hallwas, ed., Kingdom on the Mississippi Revisted: Nauvoo in Mormon History
• MacKinnon, ed., At Sword's Point, Part 1: A Documentary History of the Utah War to 1858
• Marquardt, The Rise of Mormonism, 1816–1844
• Newell and Avery, Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith
• Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
• Quinn, Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark
• Quinn, Mormon Hierarchy (2 vols.)
• Smith, ed., An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton
• Turner, Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet
• Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History

 

Edited April 18, 2016 by Nevo

[Rivers]

17 hours ago, cinepro said:

I suspect the 70 meant "Whatever book it takes to maintain your faith in the Church and its doctrines". 

He did mention the lds.org essays.

[JLHPROF]

On 4/18/2016 at 0:54 PM, Coreyb said:

I agree and have read all his major works. I didn't list him simply because I was drawing contrast between non believing scholars and faithful LDS scholars. As an excommunicated believer he doesn't easily fit either "side". I love Quinn's appendices as much as his interpretive text, but simply citing a lot of sources does not make something "better or best". I do think he sometimes reads too much into some of his sources. But who doesn't. He doesn't pretend to perfect objectivity or freedom from error.

The problem with Quinn as a historian is that the history is great but the interpretation is questionable.  His research is amazing but he has come to some very strange conclusions.

[JLHPROF]

On 4/18/2016 at 6:37 AM, Rivers said:

What are the best sources or "best books" for faithful Latter-Day Saints who want further enlightenment on historical issues?

I think the starting point and perspective will color the responses you will receive.

Faithful members will likely recommend one set of titles.  Skeptical doubters will likely recommend another set.

The subset that is recommended by both might provide a good starting point.

And of course, which specific issues you want enlightenment on will make a difference too.  Primary source works with limited author opinions (aka, wresting the facts) will always be the best choice.

[Rivers]

6 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

I think the starting point and perspective will color the responses you will receive.

Faithful members will likely recommend one set of titles.  Skeptical doubters will likely recommend another set.

The subset that is recommended by both might provide a good starting point.

And of course, which specific issues you want enlightenment on will make a difference too.  Primary source works with limited author opinions (aka, wresting the facts) will always be the best choice.

The Seventy said to avoid sources from angry or disaffected people. So probably that means mostly works from faithful LDS authors. The problem is that a truly unbiased approach to LDS history is probably rare or non-existant.  I wouldn't say all non-LDS writers are a bad source.  Josh Turner's biography of Brigham Young seemed fairly balanced.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Rivers

[Rivers]

On Monday, April 18, 2016 at 0:43 PM, Kevin Christensen said:

Is that the Arza Evans book?  I reviewed that on Amazon back in 2009.  If it's the same book, I have to say that I wasn't impressed.

I do like Bushan, Richard L. Anderson, Larry Morris, Arrington, Givens,... all sorts.

FWIW

Kevin Christensen

Canonsburg, PA

I need to read some Givens' historical works.  I've only read the two books he wrote with Fiona.

[Maedros]

On 4/18/2016 at 8:31 PM, cinepro said:

I suspect the 70 meant "Whatever book it takes to maintain your faith in the Church and its doctrines". 

Perfectly said; and by this definition my book choices are:

Jesus the Christ (Elder Talmage); The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle); As a Man Thinketh (James Allen) and The Great Controversy (Ellen G White). 

[Duncan]

Grant Hardy on the Book of Mormon blew my mind sixty ways to sunday

[readstoomuch]

Most readable, balanced and available -The Mormon Experience and The Story of the Latter-day Saints