Harold B. Lee Library

Mormon Historiography

  1. The Writing of History
    1. General Historiography
      • Harry Elmer Barnes, A History of Historical Writing (New York, 1963 ).
      • James W. Thompson, A History of Historical Writing 2 vols. (New York, 1942).
      • Ernst Breisach, Historiography, Ancient, Medieval and Modern (Chicago, 1994).
      • Richard J. Evans, In Defense of History (New York, 1999).
    2. American Historical Writing
      • Peter Gay, A Loss of Mastery, Puritan Historians in Colonial America (1968).
      • Lester A. Cohen, The Revolutionary Histories (1980).
      • George H. Callcott, History in the United States, 1800-1860 (1970).
      • David Van Tassel, Recording American’s Past . . .1607-1884 (1960).
      • John Higham, et al. History, The Development of Historical Studies in the United States (1965).
      • Michael Kraus, The Writing of American History (1953).
      • Michael Kammen, ed., The Past Before Us, Contemporary Historical Writing in the United States (1980).
  2. Mormon Historiography: Overviews
    • David J. Whittaker, “Historians and the Mormon Experience: A Sesquicentennial Perspective,” The Eighth Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, 26 January 1980 (Provo: Brigham Young University Press for the Church Educational System, 1980), 293-327.
    • Davis Bitton and Leonard J. Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians Publications in Mormon History, Volume 2 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988).
    • Howard C. Searle, “Early Mormon Historiography: Writing the History of the Mormons, 1830-1900,” (Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA, 1979).
    • Thomas G. Alexander, “Toward the New Mormon History: An Examination of the Literature on the Latter-day Saints in the Far West,” in Historians and the American West ed. Michael P. Malone (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983), 344-68.
    • S. George Ellsworth, “Utah History: Retrospect and Prospect,” Utah Historical Quarterly 40 (Fall 1971):342-67.
    • Ronald W. Walker, David J. Whittaker and James B. Allen, Mormon History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, forthcoming, fall 2000). Chapters 1-3 trace the history of Mormon historical writing.
  3. Mormon Historiography: Selected Studies
    • Dean C. Jessee, “Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormon Record Keeping,” in The Prophet Joseph: Essays on the Life and Mission of Joseph Smith ed. Larry C. Porter and Susan Easton Black (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1988), 138-60.
    • ________. “The Writing of Joseph Smith’s History,” Brigham Young University Studies 11 (Summer 1971):439-73.
    • ________. “The Reliability of Joseph Smith’s History,” Journal of Mormon History 3 (1976):23-46.
    • Charles P. Adams and Gustive O. Larson, “A Study of the LDS Church Historian’s Office, 1830-1900,” Utah Historical Quarterly 40 (Fall 1972):370-88.
    • Leonard J. Arrington, “The Search for Truth and Meaning in Mormon History,” Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought 3 (Summer 1968):56-66.
    • ________. “The Writing of LDS History: Problems, Accomplishments, Admonitions,” Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought 14 (Autumn 1981):119-29.
    • ________. Adventures of a Church Historian (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998).
    • Davis Bitton, “Ten Years in Camelot: A Personal Memoir,” Dialogue 16 (Autumn 1983):9-33.
    • ________. “B. H. Roberts as Historian,” Dialogue 3 (Winter 1968):25-44.
    • Keith W. Perkins, “A Study of the Contributions of Andrew Jenson to the Writing and Preservation of LDS Church History,” (Master’s thesis, BYU, 1971).
    • Ronald W. Walker, “Edward Tullidge: Historian of the Mormon Commonwealth,” Journal of Mormon History 3 (1976):55-72.
    • The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past ed. D. Michael Quinn (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992).
    • Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History ed. George D. Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992).
    • Louis C. Midgley and David J. Whittaker, “Mapping Contemporary Mormon Historiography: An Annotated Bibliography,” (working draft, 1990, copy in Special Collections, BYU).
    • Richard L. Bushman, “Faithful History,” Dialogue, A Journal of Mormon Thought 4 (Winter 1969):11-25.
    • Robert Bruce Flanders, “Reflections of the New Mormon History,” Dialogue 9 (Spring 1974):34-41.
    • Levi Peterson, Juanita Brooks, Mormon Woman Historian (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988).
    • S. George Ellsworth, “Hubert Howe Bancroft and the History of Utah” Utah Historical Quarterly 22 (Autumn 1956):99-124.
    • Eric C. Olson, “The ‘Perfect Pattern’: The Book of Mormon as a Model for the Writing of Sacred History,” BYU Studies 31 (Spring 1991):7-18.