History Commons^™

Egypt And Mormonism: Oriental Traits Of The Latter-Day Saints, Alexander Fronk

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

In his lecture, Dr. Francaviglia presents a fascinating framework in which to understand American history and culture, as well as Mormons specifically. Orientalism was defined for the lecture as the assimilation or imitation of that which is oriental in religious or philosophical thought, or in art. Through various mediums, including architectural examples, quotes from Mormons and their detractors, and travel literature, Dr. Francaviglia demonstrates that not only Mormons were compared to Oriental peoples and assigned Oriental traits, but they also actively attributed such traits to themselves; they assumed an Oriental identity. By understanding how Mormons were Orientalized by others and …

Mormons And Muslims: Living In An Intolerant World, Matt Bagley

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

September 11. Osama Bin Laden. Suicide bombers. Taliban. Terrorism. Cult. Allah. Muslim. These are just a few of the many words that instinctively slip to the tip of the tongue as the average American is asked to verbalize his or her thoughts on the Middle East. Not only are these some of the first words and images that come to mind, they are oftentimes the only words and images that one might have in regards to this group of people.

Cult. Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon. Polygamy. Gold bible. These are some of the words that come to mind …

Innovation And Entrepreneurial Spirit: Leonard J. Arrington And The Impact Of New Mormon History, John H. Brumbaugh

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

Writing Mormon history has never been as easy as putting ink on paper. The historian Linda Sillitoe explained, “History is crucial in Mormonism.” David Bohn elaborated on the former observation, “Every attempt to undermine the historical authenticity of the foundational events of the Mormon past constitutes an assault on Latter-day Saint self-understanding.” Thus the reconstruction of Mormon history occurs in a spiritually-charged arena. At the center of the conflict within the Mormon historiography stands a farm boy from Idaho, Leonard J. Arrington. This man carried the study of Mormonism into new areas of scholarly acceptance. His entrepreneurial spirit led to …

Knowing The Man In History, Genevieve Draper

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

The sixteenth annual Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture was dedicated to knowing the man in the history. In researching and recording history, Arrington contributed to our honestly understanding the past. In keeping his own diary, Arrington contributed to the understanding of what is now history to us. Many of the anecdotes revealed in the lecture, such as the story of his original prize hens and rooster, what he paid for them and his eventual return, record a time little likely to occur again. The common practices of the day become surprising customs to future generations.

Leonard Arrington’s diaries are …

Happiness In Plural Marriage: An Exploration Of Logic, Audrey Mcconkie Merket

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

It is difficult for any monogamous person, but especially a monogamous woman to understand how living a life of polygamy could be considered joyful and fulfilling. Being a young woman, happily married to my “true love,” the idea that the same kind of happiness I feel could exist in a plural relationship at first seemed completely illogical to me. However, as Kathleen Flake pointed out in the 2009 Arrington Memorial Lecture, “logic is not an absolute set of assertions about something. People that share your premises will think you’re logical, whereas people that don’t believe the same things as you …

The Logic Of Religious Studies And Kathleen Flake, Blair Dee Hodges

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

Kathleen Flake’s 2009 Arrington lecture gave a sneak preview of research she has been conducting on the topic of plural marriage and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. Flake, associate professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt University, brings a unique list of qualifications to her study by combining elements of law, religious studies, ritual, and the skills of an historian. Using these tools Flake explores what she calls the “priestly logic” of plural marriage, seeking to understand not only how 19th century outsiders viewed the peculiar institution, but how practicing Mormons themselves made sense of it. Flake …

“They Do Things Differently There”: Understanding A Polygamous, "Foreign Country", Barbara Jones Brown

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

My perception of the Mormon practice of polygamy has been evolutionary. My desire to comprehend it comes from a need to understand not only the faith I espouse, but also my very being. Polygamy is in my DNA. My maternal, third-great grandfather, Willard Richards, was one of Mormonism’s earliest polygamists, and my fraternal, third-great grandfather one of its most prolific—Christopher Layton had ten wives and sixty-five children. When I was a child my dad sometimes told me about our polygamous ancestors. Somehow polygamy did not seem that surprising or strange to me then. “Just a different, old-fashioned way of marriage,” …