The Mountain Meadows Massacre


Juanita Brooks - 1967
    The men on the ground after the bloody deed took an oath that they would never mention the event again, either in public or in private. The leaders of the Mormon church also counseled silence. The first report, soon after the massacre, described it as an Indian onslaught at which a few white men were present, only one of whom, John D. Lee, was actually named.With admirable scholarship, Mrs. Brooks has traced the background of conflict, analyzed the emotional climate at the time, pointed up the social and military organization in Utah, and revealed the forces which culminated in the great tragedy at Mountain Meadows. The result is a near-classic treatment which neither smears nor clears the participants as individuals. It portrays an atmosphere of war hysteria, whipped up by recitals of past persecutions and the vision of an approaching "army" coming to drive the Mormons from their homes.

Faith Among Shadows


Malcolm Leal - 2009
    While on special assignment with the Cuban Special Forces, Malcolm receives a blow from a sniper rifle that almost ends his life. It is in this moment of darkness that Malcolm calls upon this God in faith, thus beginning his miraculous journey in search of truth, and his eventual discovery of and conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Joseph Smith


Robert V. Remini - 2002
    In Joseph Smith, he employs his keen insight and rich storytelling gift to explore one of the period's major figures. The most important reformer and innovator in American religious history, Joseph Smith has remained a fascinating enigma to many both inside and outside the Mormon Church he founded. Born in 1805, Smith grew up during the "Second Great Awakening," when secular tumult had spawned radical religious fervor and countless new sects. His contemplative nature and soaring imagination the first of his many visions occurred at the age of fourteen were nurtured in the close, loving family created by his deeply devout parents. His need to lead and be recognized was met by his mission as God's vehicle for a new faith and by the hundreds who, magnetized by his charm and charismatic preaching, gave rise to the Mormon Church. Remini brings Smith into unprecedented focus and contextualizes his enduring contribution to American life and culture within the distinctive characteristics of an extraordinary age."

What a Friend We Have in Jesus


Chieko N. Okazaki - 2008
    Her latest book is filled with evidences of the Savior's unlimited love for us. Chapters on the power of prayer, trusting in the Lord, and the joy of living the gospel invite us to claim the blessings our Savior has in store for us and demonstrate how the Lord gives and gives until we are fuller than we ever would have thought possible.

No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith


Fawn M. Brodie - 1945
    Was he a genuine prophet, or a gifted fabulist who became enthralled by the products of his imagination and ended up being martyred for them? 24 pages of photos. Map.

Faith Rewarded: A Personal Account of Prophetic Promises to the East German Saints


Thomas S. Monson - 1996
    Taken from President Monson's personal journal accounts over a 40 year span, Faith Rewarded is a great testimony of faith for the oppressed people of East Germany and those behind the iron curtain.

L. Tom Perry, an Uncommon Life: Years of Preparation


Lee Tom Perry - 2013
    

The Holy Covenants: Living Our Sacred Temple Promises


Anthony Sweat - 2022
    

Boyd K. Packer: A Watchman on the Tower


Lucile C. Tate - 1995
    Packer's life and ministry the gospel principles this outstanding teacher has taught and practiced come through with striking clarity. The book itself will thus be a powerful teacher to its readers"

The Other Martyr: Insights From the Life of Hyrum Smith


Susan Easton Black
    

Mormon Scientist: The Life and Faith of Henry Eyring


Henry J. Eyring - 2008
    Maxwell told a grandson of Henry Eyring's, You need to write your grandfather's story. This is that story of Henry Eyring, perhaps the most acclaimed scientist ever to come from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a book about science and Mormonism, written to be easily understood by newcomers to both subjects. It demonstrates why one of the Church's highest-profile intellectuals was also one of its humblest believers. In fact, this story of Henry Eyring shows how intellect and belief go hand-in-hand and how simple, faithful people can change the world.

A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870


Laurel Thatcher Ulrich - 2017
    Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, writing of this small group of Mormon women who've previously been seen as mere names and dates, has reconstructed these textured, complex lives to give us a portrait of who these women were and of their "sex radicalism"--the idea that a woman should choose when and with whom to bear children.

Presidents and Prophets: The Story of America's Presidents and the LDS Church


Michael K. Winder - 2007
    Winder, member of the Utah Board of State History. There are 43 chapters, one for each president from George Washington to George W. Bush. We see the Church rising from obscurity to political clout as America's-fastest growing religion.You will learn of the wartime President who checked out the Book of Mormon from the Library of Congress; of the President who spoke at a funeral in the Washington, DC Stake Center; the President who attended school in the Kirtland Temple; and the President who had two high priests in his cabinet. Read about what FDR wrote to Churchill about the Mormons; the President who grew up in Ohio with Lorenzo Snow; the Apostle who spent his honeymoon in the White House; and the President who quoted Alma in a letter he wrote to a missionary.One President asked that his sick wife be given a priesthood blessing. Another received a priesthood blessing himself shortly before his death. Two Presidents have attended Family Home Evenings with two different Apostles. One former President helped the Church missionary program in Africa. There was the President who telephoned Spencer W. Kimball during a stake conference to ask him a few questions, and the President who would spontaneously land Air Force One just to check on his friend David O. McKay.

Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism


Taylor G. Petrey - 2020
    Petrey's trenchant history takes a landmark step forward in documenting and theorizing about Latter-day Saints (LDS) teachings on gender, sexual difference, and marriage. Drawing on deep archival research, Petrey situates LDS doctrines in gender theory and American religious history since World War II. His challenging conclusion is that Mormonism is conflicted between ontologies of gender essentialism and gender fluidity, illustrating a broader tension in the history of sexuality in modernity itself.As Petrey details, LDS leaders have embraced the idea of fixed identities representing a natural and divine order, but their teachings also acknowledge that sexual difference is persistently contingent and unstable. While queer theorists have built an ethics and politics based on celebrating such sexual fluidity, LDS leaders view it as a source of anxiety and a tool for the shaping of a heterosexual social order. Through public preaching and teaching, the deployment of psychological approaches to "cure" homosexuality, and political activism against equal rights for women and same-sex marriage, Mormon leaders hoped to manage sexuality and faith for those who have strayed from heteronormativity.

The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith


Matthew Bowman - 2012
    One of the nascent faith’s early initiates was a twenty-three-year-old Ohio farmer named Parley Pratt, the distant grandfather of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In The Mormon People, religious historian Matthew Bowman peels back the curtain on more than 180 years of Mormon history and doctrine. He recounts the church’s origin and development, explains how Mormonism came to be one of the fastest-growing religions in the world by the turn of twenty-first-century, and ably sets the scene for a 2012 presidential election that has the potential to mark a major turning point in the way this “all-American” faith is perceived by the wider American public—and internationally. Mormonism started as a radical movement, with a profoundly transformative vision of American society that was rooted in a form of Christian socialism. Over the ensuing centuries, Bowman demonstrates, that vision has evolved—and with it the esteem in which Mormons have been held in the eyes of their countrymen. Admired on the one hand as hardworking paragons of family values, Mormons have also been derided as oddballs and persecuted as polygamists, heretics, and zealots clad in “magic underwear.” Even today, the place of Mormonism in public life continues to generate heated debate on both sides of the political divide. Polls show widespread unease at the prospect of a Mormon president. Yet the faith has never been more popular. Today there are about 14 million Mormons in the world, fewer than half of whom live inside the United States. It is a church with a powerful sense of its own identity and an uneasy sense of its relationship with the main line of American culture.  Mormons will surely play an even greater role in American civic life in the years ahead. In such a time, The Mormon People comes as a vital addition to the corpus of American religious history—a frank and fair-minded demystification of a faith that remains a mystery for many.