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Memories In Stone: Family History Research In The Western Pyrenees, Paul Woodbury

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

I stood in a small grove of trees, which afforded a respite from the misty rain. Streams of fog crept along the valley walls and covered the village of Aydius in foamy white waves. I admired the engravings decorating the lchante household- the heartfelt expression of a peasant farmer and shepherd. I would never have imagined that my internship and study abroad would culminate here, reading my ancestor's memoirs chiseled in stone. Yet here I was, thousands of miles from home, alone in a foreign country, away from the pristine comfort of the regional archives, reading Joseph lchante's legacy carved …

Foreword, Taylor Rice

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Last year I had the distinct privilege of serving as an editor for this fine publication. As the year was brought to a close, Elise Peterson, last volumes Editor-in-Chief, asked me if I would like to stay on with the 7hetean and be its next Editor-in-Chief. I readily agreed, though I was not convinced I was fully qualified. Elise left big shoes to be filled.

The Tree Of "Bitter Fruit": Why Anarchism Failed In Transylvania, Richard Bruner

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Today, the word "anarchy" conjures images of bombs, anti-government protests, and chaos. Achough that may be the modern perception of anarchy, the image did not begin like that. The term has existed for ages, only evolving toward its modern connotation during the nineteenth century. The Greek meaning of the term is "contrary to authority or without a ruler." Anarchy existed as a loose term for the lack of government, or to describe chose who opposed government-often with a derogatory meaning attached to it. Then, in the 1840s Jean-Pierre Proudhon adopted the term to describe his political and social philosophies. Simply …

The Death Of Meriwether Lewis, Matthew W. Hamilton

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the early morning hours of October 11, 1809, two shots rang out at Grinder's Stand on a wilderness road known as the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. Immediately following the shots, Mrs. Grinder heard a loud "thud" in the adjoining room and a man cry out, "Oh, Lord!" Mrs. Grinder became an eyewitness to a tragic scene. From a concealed location in her kitchen, Mrs. Grinder, with possibly one or two others, watched the traveler who had arrived the previous evening. He appeared to be wounded. As the stranger stumbled about the property he asked for water. Mrs. Grinder, whose …

Preface, Emily Brann West

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

For only the second time, this year's Thetean has been solely produced by our staff It has proven to be an interesting and occasionally difficult journey, but we are satisfied with the outcome, and we hope you will be as well. We received over 70 submissions this year, a record-breaking number, and so we decided to indulge ourselves by including eight, rather than the customary five, papers in this edition. We found these papers to be interesting, thought-provoking, and enlightening; they cover a broad range of topics, and the authors worked diligently on them. We thank them for their efforts.

Preface, Scott Ashton

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Last year Phi Alpha Theta, the national honor society for history students, awarded the Best Chapter Award in our division to the Beta Iota Chapter at Brigham Young University. Such a distinction is a tribute to the active participation of the chapter's members and to the quality of students and professors in the History Department at BYU. The Thetean, the official journal of the Beta Iota Chapter, showcases the scholarly research of some of these students.

"History Ceases To Exist": Gettysburg And The American Memory, 1865 To 1985, Gary Daynes

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

John Brinkerhoff Jackson, the foremost historian of American landscapes, concluded his essay "The Necessity for Ruins" by stating that for most modern Americans "History ceases to exist." By this, Jackson did not imply that Americans have no interest in the past, for each year millions flock to historic sites. Rather, for Americans, the past is a plaything serving no purpose beyond bolstering their national self image.

Postmodern Philosophy And Its Influence On Modern Museum Theory And Development, Mauri Liljenquist

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

History legitimizes its role in society through the benefits it provides for the public. The idea of history in the ivory tower, while it appeals to some historians and scholars, can never be sufficient to justify the field. Instead it is what emerges from the ivory tower and how that product influences and affects the outside world that determines the value of historical endeavors. The dissemination of history to the public is one of the most significant aspects of the profession. Accuracy and integrity in research and writing are the primary responsibilities of the historian. Following these, the next most …

Iron Ore Occurrences In Oman

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

On 5 April 2000 three BYU geology professors and a professional geologist reported on their work of evaluating the presence of iron ore in southern Oman. Titled "Nephi's Tools: An Overview of Iron Ore Occurrences in Oman," the session featured reports by Ronald A. Harris, Eugene E. Clark, Jeffrey D. Keith, and W. Revell Phillips. Their recent work in Oman is part of the university's larger effort to learn more about the history and culture of ancient southern Arabia.

Forthcoming Publications

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Abraham in Egypt, by Hugh W. Nibley, second edition, edited by Gary P. Gillum. This book duplicates the original 1981 volume published by Deseret Book but adds chapters from Nibley's "A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price" series that appeared in the Improvement Era from 1968 to 1970. Nibley examines discoveries that have shed light on Abraham and his times and that help confirm the authenticity of the Book of Abraham. Available in spring 2000.

Lds Church Sponsors Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit In Chicago

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the principal sponsors of an exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls that opened on 10 March at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. Running through 11 June 2000, the exhibit features 15 scroll texts and 80 artifacts excavated at Qumran, a site of ancient ruins located near the caves where the scrolls were first discovered.

Farms And Byu Participate In The 1999 Aar And Sbl Annual Meetings In Boston

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Since 1995 FARMS representatives have attended the joint annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). AAR and SBL are longstanding learned societies with members from colleges, universities, seminaries, and other academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Each year they jointly hold their annual meetings, which constitute the largest gathering of religion scholars in the world, offering sessions on subjects ranging from the history of Christianity and the study of Islam to biblical texts and their ancient contexts.

Farms Through The Years, Part 3: A Conversation With Daniel Peterson And Daniel Oswald

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

When did you first become involved with FARMS? Peterson: In the late 1970s and early 80s, Stephen Ricks and I and, a little bit later, Bill Hamblin and I began to talk about the need for an organization like FARMS. We didn't realize that Jack Welch was already launching the Foundation. My actual involvement with FARMS began on a very low level while I was a doctoral student in California, and then accelerated rapidly when I became a member of the BYU faculty in the fall of 1985.

A Note On Benjamin And Lehi, John A. Tvedtnes

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Mosiah 1:2–6, which describes how King Benjamin taught his sons, seems to be patterned after Lehi’s teaching of his son Nephi. The italicized words in the extracts below highlight the parallels in the two accounts.

Forthcoming Publications

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

FARMS Review of Books (vol. 14, no. 1–2), edited by Daniel C. Peterson, reviews books on Book of Mormon geography limited to the Great Lakes region, a book on the life of Joseph Smith, a book by evangelical scholars who challenge LDS apologetic scholarship, and other books. Available in late November 2002.

Book Review: Robert Irwin. Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography, Leland Conley Barrows

Comparative Civilizations Review

Robert Irwin (b. 1946), a British historian, novelist, and essayist, became so enthralled by Arabic Muslim society, politics, language, literature, and culture that while reading modern history at Oxford University in the 1960’s, he became a Muslim during his first summer vacation which he spent at a Sufi Alawi foundation in Algeria. In parallel, he developed a fascination for the Tunisian polymath, Wali al-Din ‘Abd al Rahman Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) who has been variously described as the greatest Muslim intellectual, the greatest social scientist of the Middle Ages, the founder of Sociology and the critical study of history, and a …

From Other Publishers

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Understanding Islam: An LDS Perspective, a new audiotape from Covenant Recordings in which Daniel C. Peterson, a BYU scholar of Islam and Arabic, provides a fascinating look at the history and beliefs of a religion of more than 1.4 billion adherents. See the order form.

New Resource On Ancient Maya Writing Released

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

A new volume published under the Institute’s Research Press imprint is A Thematic Bibliography of Ancient Maya Writing, by Stephen D. Houston and Zachary Nelson. “Many people don’t know about the quantity of research on ancient Maya writing,” says Houston, a BYU professor of anthropology who is an authority on Maya writing. “In fact, the literature is overwhelmingly large. This bibliography provides a roadmap through that literature.”

Latest Review Rolls Off Press

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The FARMS Review of Books has a long tradition of providing its readers with insightful and substantive reviews of books on the Book of Mormon, Mormon studies, and Christian studies, as well as those books that attack the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The latest issue does not disappoint. It contains reviews and responses to 18 books or articles on diverse topics, such as ancient Nephite culture, the conversion of Alma, hidden ancient records, the temple, the LDS concept of the nature of God, and the ark of the covenant.

New Reader’S Edition Of The Book Of Mormon, Louis Midgley

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

With the recent publication of The Book of Mormon: A Reader‘s Edition, Grant Hardy has provided the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a remarkable new version of their founding text. Although Hardy gears his book to a broad readership, those who truly love the Book of Mormon, seek to be serious students of it, or both will find A Reader’s Edition well worth owning. Why? Because in this edition the text is displayed not in verse format but in discrete, sub-headed sections of greater length with ease of reading the end in view.

Outreach Activities For The Sahs, Rob Sherwood

Swiss American Historical Society Review

On July 5, 2022, I visited Jan Sparkman at the Laurel County Historical Society, London, Kentucky. Ms. Sparkman is no longer the President of the of the Society, but she was the contact point that I had made. They have been in their building, a former County Health Department since 2007. They do not pay any rent nor utilities. It is a good space with lots of local history items, cemetery records, family history, etc. They have a small museum with images and artifacts about local history and have saved many primary records (marriage, land deeds, etc., from a neighboring …

Report Of The Editor-In-Chief Of The Sahs Review, Albert Winkler

Swiss American Historical Society Review

A Good Year for Articles

I wish to state that the quality and variety of publications in the SAHS Review for 2022 remain strong. The February 2022 issue included four good articles including the “Battle of Dornach in 1499,” the “History of the Swiss Consulate in New York,” “Swiss Heritage Preserved at New Glarus Museum,” and “Glarus and Scranton: Benefits and Costs of Industrialization.” The article on the Swiss Consulate was first published in 1926, so it is now in the public domain. The Swiss Consulate in New York asked us to publish it, so I had to type it …

The Origins Of Democracy In Switzerland, Thomas Quinn Marabello

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Switzerland is one of the world’s oldest continuous democracies. Since the Middle Ages, Swiss cantons engaged in democracy at the local level, which led to the Federal Charter of 1291. This important document laid the foundations for the Swiss Confederacy, an alliance of cantons that eventually became a unified democratic nation in the heart of Europe. For over seven centuries, Swiss democracy has impacted people and institutions in Switzerland and elsewhere. America’s founders were well versed in Swiss political institutions and borrowed from them when creating the Constitution of the United States. As democracies come under attack and see their …

Sahs Website Report, Richard Hacken

Swiss American Historical Society Review

The Website of the Swiss American Historical Society is one of the Society’s show windows to the world. The site consists of seven main pages.

About Us, the landing site and first web page, gives our mission statement and goals along with other general information and long-term announcements, such as the dates and locations of annual meetings for the next three years. There is also a listing of the officers of the Society with contact emails and a stand-alone “Contact” button for easy and rapid access to the Society from curious visitors.

Forthcoming Publications

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Astronomy, Papyrus, and Covenant, edited by John Gee
and Brian Hauglid, is volume 3 in the Book of Abraham
Series. It includes FARMS conference papers on the Book
of Abraham and its commonalities with ancient texts,
Abraham’s vision of the heavens, and the significance of
the Abrahamic covenant. Available autumn 2003.

A Call For Emendations, Royal Skousen

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

As I have been working on the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project, people have
occasionally written or talked to me about passages in the Book of Mormon that seem strange or difficult. A good many have made specific suggestions about emendations (or revisions to the text). Surprisingly, a large percentage of these have ended up being correct or have led me to come up with an appropriate emendation.

Brown Bag Report

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

With fall semester under way at Brigham Young University, we look forward to keeping you abreast of another round of Institute-sponsored brown bag lectures. These presentations, which are not open to the general public, enable researchers to share their expertise and findings with their peers in related fields and to receive constructive input. Following are reports of three such presentations from earlier this year.

Etruscan Gold Book From 600 B.C. Discovered

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Bulgarian National Museum of History in Sofia, Bulgaria, recently placed on public display an ancient book comprising six pages of 23.82-karat gold (measuring 5 centimeters in length and 4.5 centimeters in width) bound together by gold rings. The plates contain a text written in Etruscan characters and also depict a horse, a horseman, a Siren, a lyre, and soldiers. According to Elka Penkova, who
heads the museum’s archaeology department, the find may be the oldest complete book in the world, dating to about 600 B.C.

Forthcoming Publication

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The FARMS Review (vol. 15, no. 1), edited by Daniel C. Peterson, contains reviews of a FARMS publication titled Uncovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon: History and Findings of the Critical Text Project, Terryl L. Givens’s study of the Book of Mormon titled By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion (published by Oxford University Press), three books on the Book of Abraham, and an evangelical critique titled The New Mormon
Challenge, initially treated in the last Review. The FARMS Review (formerly FARMS Review of Books) also includes a study of …

Institute News

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Institute appreciates opportunities to facilitate meaningful scholarly discussion of Mormon studies. One recent instance was its cosponsorship of a conference titled “God, Humanity, and Revelation: Perspectives from Mormon Philosophy and History,” held at the Yale University Divinity School on 27–29 March. The event featured more than two dozen scholars and authors, including several Latter-day Saints. A report of the conference will appear in the next issue of Insights.