• Source: Historians of the Latter Day Saint movement

Historians of the Latter Day Saint movement are a diverse group of historians writing about Mormonism. Historians devoted to the history of the Latter Day Saint movement may be members of a Latter Day Saint faith or non-members with an academic interest. They range from faith-promoting historians to anti-Mormon historians, but also include scholars who make an honest effort at objectivity.




Range of perspective


Authors of books on "faith-promoting history" are criticized as generally avoiding more controversial topics in an effort to promote faith among members. This sort of history has generally been endorsed by the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and was encouraged by church apostle Dallin H. Oaks.

"Criticism is particularly objectionable when it is directed toward Church authorities, general or local. ... Evil-speaking of the Lord's anointed is in a class by itself. It is one thing to depreciate a person who exercises corporate power or even government power. It is quite another thing to criticize or depreciate a person for the performance of an office to which he or she has been called of God. It does not matter that the criticism is true. As President George F. Richards of the Council of the Twelve said in a conference address in April 1947: 'When we say anything bad about the leaders of the Church, whether true or false, we tend to impair their influence and their usefulness and are thus working against the Lord and his cause.' (CR April 1947, p. 24)"
"Balance is telling both sides. This is not the mission of the official Church literature or avowedly anti-Mormon literature.Neither has any responsibility to present both sides."
On the opposite end of the spectrum are anti-Mormon historians, which Oaks mentioned in the above quote. Anti-Mormons generally write with the intention of disproving the claims of the LDS Church, sometimes to the point of fabricating lies about the LDS Church. Though such historians would not be considered Latter Day Saints, they could be considered Latter Day Saint historians as the LDS Church is the topic of their research. Many anti-Mormons are, in fact, non-practicing ex-Mormons and therefore may still consider themselves cultural Mormons.
Other historians reject both faith-promoting history and anti-Mormon history, and seek to give a more objective analysis, basing their conclusions on actual evidence, rather than revealing selective evidence to reach their desired conclusions.




List of Latter Day Saint historians


Thomas Alexander
Edward H. Anderson
Leonard J. Arrington, American author, academic, and the founder of the Mormon History Association
Valeen Tippetts Avery
Will Bagley
Fawn McKay Brodie
Juanita Brooks, American historian and author
Susan Easton Black, professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University
Claudia Bushman
Richard Bushman, Gouverneur Morris Professor of History emeritus at Columbia University
Todd Compton
Kathleen Flake, Richard Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies at the University of Virginia.
Laura Harris Hales, writer, historian, and podcaster
Kate Holbrook, Managing Historian of women’s history in the Church History Department
Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye, Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Auckland
Jon Krakauer, American writer and mountaineer
Steven C. Harper
Dale Morgan
Reid Larkin Neilson
Linda King Newell
Grant H. Palmer
Gregory Prince
D. Michael Quinn
Jennifer Reeder, Nineteenth-century women’s history specialist in the Church History Department
Jan Shipps, Professor Emeritus at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis
Wallace Stegner
Richard E. Turley, Jr.
Grant Underwood
William Robert Wright
Organizations




See also


Mormonism and history




References






External links


Media related to Historians of the Latter Day Saint movement at Wikimedia Commons

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