The Mormon Church

A Basic History

Review

DEAN HUGHES. The Mormon Church: A Basic History. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1986. 219 pp. $10.95.

Can a history of the Church be written that blends faith and humanity in a package that will satisfy the diverse surveyors of LDS history? Probably not. Can a fine stylist, even though his intended audience is unsophisticated in historical matters, provide an adequate survey of LDS history in just two hundred pages? I doubt it. But Dean Hughes, author of several popular books for children and youth, has made a commendable effort and achieved a modicum of success.

Indeed, if I had stopped reading after an hour or so I would have concluded that Hughes did very well. His writing is lean and crisp. The initial chapters are cohesive and tight. For a nonspecialist he demonstrates an impressive acquaintance with the basic outlines, themes, and challenges of LDS history. Likely a good deal of his historical maturity was supplied by his advisors, historians Larry C. Porter and David Whittaker, a fact that Hughes graciously acknowledges in the preface.

Despite expert advisement, there are a fair number of factual errors, suspect interpretations, and unfortunate omissions, and occasionally I wondered if Hughes paid sufficient attention to his mentors. By citing only Parley P. Pratt’s description of Joseph’s revelatory approach (45–46), Hughes left readers with the impression that all the Prophet’s revelations came tightly bundled in a precise package, never to be rewrapped. The notion that Sydney never recovered from his head-thumping in 1832 (47) is speculative, and Joseph’s prophetic genius in predicting the outbreak of the Civil War (54) might have been overstated. (I think there are better examples attesting to Joseph’s prophetic calling.) In discussing premartyrdom conditions and tensions, Hughes could have stated that while the Saints had legal precedent to prevent the publication of the Expositor, it was probably a mistake to destroy the press. His discussion of the Manifesto era was shallow and lacked the verve and candor that characterized his treatment of sensitive themes in earlier chapters. In fairness to the author it should be stated that a good many errors and shortcomings were likely due to the obvious space constraints under which he had to work.

Perhaps a more serious defect is the omission of two fundamental themes central to understanding the Mormon experience and which need to be included, even in a historical primer. The first is a consideration of the impact of millennial expectations on the course of LDS history in the nineteenth century. Certainly some of what Mormons said and did is more clearly understood within a millennial framework. The second is an examination of how the different aims of Mormon society and American society led to conflict. Readers should understand that a good deal (but not all) of the animosity and misunderstanding between Mormons and non-Mormons in the nineteenth century was due to their pursuing contradictory objectives. In practicing plural marriage, theocratic government, and communitarian economics, the Saints were running against the grain of American history.

Clearly, the most glaring deficiency in the book is the superficial treatment afforded Church history after the Joseph Smith era. Again, I would emphasize that editorial restrictions probably account for this. As it is, the Nauvoo chapter is markedly weaker than the earlier ones on New York, Ohio, and Missouri, and from that point on the quality and value of the book lessons almost correspondingly with each chapter. By the time the reader reaches the twentieth century, history is going by as quickly as telephone poles do in high-speed driving. The administrations of Lorenzo Snow and Joseph F. Smith managed to swoosh by in just ten pages. C’mon now.

Fortunately, there are many strengths and while they do not completely counterbalance the shortcomings, they do make the book worth reading. I have already indicated that the first few chapters are very good. They are good, in part, because for Hughes, people are larger and more important than the events they participate in. Thus Hughes chose to go beyond a factual narrative and clothe his characters with flesh and feelings. There were poignant human interest stories interspersed throughout. I felt empathy when Agnes Smith trudged three miles through the snow with two little children (93), and sadness for Sister Downey who died and was wrapped in a quilt and buried on the plains (92). I was both amused and touched at little Mary Ann praying for Father Brigham before going to bed (128). Properly, Hughes did not feel that inspiration and humanness were mutually exclusive and for the most part, Joseph, Brigham, and the early Saints walked the same turf that we do. Thus we find Joseph Smith “becoming comfortable with the idea of being a prophet” (34), Missouri Saints causing some of their own problems (50), and Joseph making an honest, reasonable, but ultimately wrong decision in forming the Kirtland Safety Society (78). At the same time, Hughes never allowed human frailty to upstage the commitment, inspiration, and divine direction of both Church leaders and lay Saints. This is, by nearly any criterion, a faith-promoting work.

And, despite its inadequacies, Basic History does fill the publisher’s intent of providing a brief and inspiring introduction to the history of the Church for newcomers and young converts. It fulfills that need better than any volume thus far. It’s just unfortunate Hughes could not have stretched out a bit and given post-Joseph Smith history its just due.

About the author(s)

Paul H. Peterson is an assistant professor of religion and Church history at Brigham Young University.

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Print ISSN: 2837-0031
Online ISSN: 2837-004X