Comments on: Awards for Best Biographies in 2005

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:31:40 +0000

You’re right, Merrill lived a full and fascinating life, and there’s almost nothing on him in the literature. Your contribution is a welcome step.

By: a random cougar

a random cougar — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 05:11:14 +0000

*Spencer Kimball? Though Heber would have been quite dramatic. I agree on the dearth (sp?) of scholarship on twentieth-century figures and women in Mormon history–I’m presenting a paper at MHA on Joseph F. Merrill, but it only provides a skim outline of his life and focuses on his work with President Hinckley. But this is the man that initiated released-time seminary, was Church Comissioner of Education during the opening years of the Depression (and thus oversaw the Church’s divestment of several junior colleges), and vigorously campaigned for the continuation of Prohibtion (along with the Church’s use of mass media.) Yet, no published biography exists, and he gets the briefest mentions in the available histories. L. Tom Perry Special Collections has tons of 20th century Church history, countless papers and books just waiting to be written. Of course, after this paper I’m not pursuing Mormon studies . . .

By: David

David — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 04:41:37 +0000

I agree whole heartedly Justin’s comments. Its commonplace to lionize the leadership class in any culture or society. Some historians call this phenomena “the great man theory of history.” That the ony important thing that need be written about and taught are what those at the top did. So we end up mythologizing the greatness of such leaders without really understanding the social forces that influence their positions and decisions. So we accept that Lincoln freed the slaves and that Martin Luther King ended racism all by himself. Or that Roosevelt ended the Great Depression. Or that Heber Kimball was solely responsible for ending the Blacks and the priesthood ban.

For those that think only biographies about the important and the known will sell or be received need ony look to the renowned besteller, “A Peoples History of the United States” by Howard Zinn to see that alternative accounts of history have value and merit in society.

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 04:11:02 +0000

I didn’t know that Kenney was still working on that project. I hear he’s working on the Joseph Smith biography due out in a few years.

I should say that my list of biographical subjects did not make note of the fact that in some cases, scholars are currently working on biographies (e.g., Eliza Snow and Heber J. Grant).

Women and twentieth-century figures have been neglected topics in Mormon studies. A survey history of women in Mormonism does not exist. Scholars could write more social and cultural history on subjects such as the lives of LDS missionaries, on the lives of LDS youth and children, on LDS singles, on the lives of members from various ethnic and racial backgrounds, on life within Mormon wards and stakes (esp. in places outside the U.S.), on life in a modern majority-LDS community.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 23:06:05 +0000

Among others, Justin?

Kenney was working on a biography of Joseph F. Smith. Did he drop that project? If so, I sure hope Flake picks it up.

By: Justin Butterfield

Justin Butterfield — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 22:27:37 +0000

I expect more in the way of interdisciplinary studies, but I think we are lacking for adequate biographies on multiple elite figures, including Lorenzo Snow, Joseph F. Smith, Heber J. Grant, George Albert Smith, Joseph Fielding Smith, Ezra Taft Benson, Howard W. Hunter, Amy Brown Lyman, George A. Smith, Eliza R. Snow, Zina Huntington, Susa Young Gates, Oliver Cowdery, Bathsheba Smith, James Talmage, N. Eldon Tanner, Belle Spafford, David Whitmer, Martin Harris, Reed Smoot, Bruce R. McConkie, Clarissa S. Williams, Louise Y. Robison, Barbara Smith, and Parley Pratt.