From J. Reuben Clark to Sen. Mike Lee and Dallin H. Oaks, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have had a profound influence on the legal profession.
Category: Latter-day Saint History
Learn more about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including historical findings about Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and more.
Christopher Blythe’s archival research ended up contributing to scholarship about Brigham Young. Blythe was researching 19th century dreams and visions when he stumbled across an unexpected find: a previously unrecorded revelation given to Brigham Young.
Richard Bennett is a professor of Church History and Doctrine and BYU, the author of Temples Rising: A Heritage of Sacrifice, and president of the Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters. His book talks about sacrifices made by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to build temples at great sacrifice, including the Kirtland Temple and Nauvoo Temple.
What happens when you mix an established global celebrity, a growing worldwide religion, and a mischievous local trickster? This is the tale of Elvis Presley, the Book of Mormon, and a Latter-day Saint myth.
In the Old Testament, King Solomon settles a debate between two women who both claim to be a child’s mother by proposing to cut the child in half. In his latest book, “If Truth Were a Child” (Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 253 pages), BYU professor of humanities George Handley uses the story as a metaphor for the way people treat truth.
The city of Nauvoo, IL is closely associated with the early history of Joseph Smith and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But the city has been home to different groups over time, and there’s even a tenuous connection to the biblical Song of Solomon. In Return to the City of Joseph: Modern Mormonism’s Contest for the Soul of Nauvoo, Scott C. Esplin provides a social history of Nauvoo beginning in 1846.
Louie B. Felt isn’t someone recognized by many Latter-day Saints. Most of our attention toward women in early Utah history typically goes toward deserving figures like Eliza Snow, Emmeline B. Wells, or Susa Young Gates. And yet Louie B. Felt was one of the most prominent people of her time. RoseAnn Benson discusses Felt’s legacy, including her call as the first general president of the Primary Association.
Rod Decker was a Utah political reporter for more than 40 years and is the author of Utah Politics: The Elephant in the Room (Signature Books, 2019). The book provides a political context for many of the events described in Saints 3: Boldly, Nobly, and Independent, 1893–1955.
Thomas Alexander is the author Brigham Young and the Expansion of the Mormon Faith (University of Oklahoma University Press, 2019). His book precedes another contribution from the press about the relationship between Brigham Young and Jim Bridger.
George Handley is a professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at BYU and author of If Truth Were a Child (Maxwell Institute, 2019).