Posts Tagged ‘ Mormon History ’

I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ 1996 documentary series on The West.  It’s a 9 part series, so it takes a bit of effort to get through.  Of course Burns spends some time discussing the Mormons, and I found his treatment of Mormons within the context of the western United States very interesting. In Part 4: [...]

One topic I have not discussed in my 4 years of blogging is discrepancies in the First Vision accounts.  Basically, there are 4 accounts of the First Vision.  The account in the Pearl of Great Price is the last account, and comes from 1838.   John Dehlin and Richard Bushman discuss these variations in Part 2 [...]

In past years, it seems that the Sunstone Symposium and FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research) have overlapped, so it was difficult to attend both. However, this year they were not the same week. I was able to attend my first FAIR conference, though my time was limited to just 2 speakers. Since this [...]

Sunstone began on Wednesday, but unfortunately, I could only attend Friday. I thought I would give some impressions of the Friday sessions. Todd Compton started off the day with the polygamist ancestry of Mitt Romney. It was interesting to see that Parley P. Pratt is the great-great grandfather of Mitt Romney. Parley’s fourth wife, Mary [...]

Not sure what to get for someone who knows everything about Mormon history?  Here’s a last minute gift-idea: The Nauvoo City Council and High Council Minutes.  The book is due to be released today and is edited by John Dinger.  This is the first time that the City Council Minutes have ever been available to [...]

The Deseret News reported that the U.S. Government designated Mountain Meadows as a national historic landmark a few weeks ago.  For those who don’t know, in September 1857, 120 immigrants were killed by Mormons at Mountain Meadows near Cedar City, Utah.  Mormons tried to cover up the tragedy and blame it on the Indians.  I have previously [...]

I was pleased to be invited to a screening of the film 17 Miracles.  At the beginning of the film, the authors made a note that they took some liberty with the sequencing of events, but all of the miracles really happened. The story follows a pioneer by the name of Levi Savage, played by [...]

This is a sad day for Mormon History buffs.  I have just learned that Richard Van Wagoner passed away on Saturday night/Sunday morning.  He has written several book on Mormon History.  I blogged about his Sidney Rigdon book, and he recently completed The Complete Discourses of Brigham Young.  Here is a list of some of his books.  I’ll [...]