- Hardcover: 200 pages
- Publisher: University of Missouri; 1 edition (Mar 5 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0826218873
- ISBN-13: 978-0826218872
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16.3 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #955,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
The Mormon presence in nineteenth-century Missouri was uneasy at best and at times flared into violence fed by misunderstanding and suspicion. By the end of 1838, blood was shed, and Governor Lilburn Boggs ordered that Mormons were to be “exterminated or driven from the state.”
The Missouri persecutions greatly shaped Mormon faith and culture; this book reexamines Mormon-Missourian history within the sociocultural context of its time. The contributors to this volume unearth the challenges and assumptions on both sides of the conflict, as well as the cultural baggage that dictated how their actions and responses played on each other.
Shortly after Joseph Smith proclaimed Jackson County the site of the “New Jerusalem,” Mormon settlers began moving to western Missouri, and by 1833 they made up a third of the county’s population. Mormons and Missourians did not mix well. The new settlers were relocated to Caldwell County, but tensions still escalated, leading to the three-month “Mormon War” in 1838—capped by the Haun’s Mill Massacre, now a seminal event in Mormon history.
These nine essays explain why Missouri had an important place in the theology of 1830s Mormonism and was envisioned as the site of a grand temple. The essays also look at interpretations of the massacre, the response of Columbia’s more moderate citizens to imprisoned church leaders (suggesting that the conflict could have been avoided if Smith had instead chosen Columbia as his new Zion), and Mormon migration through the state over the thirty years following their expulsion.
Although few Missourians today are aware of this history, many Mormons continue to be suspicious of the state despite the eventual rescinding of Governor Boggs’s order. By depicting the Missouri-Mormon conflict as the result of a particularly volatile blend of cultural and social causes, this book takes a step toward understanding the motivations behind the conflict and sheds new light on the state of religious tolerance in frontier America.
About the Author
About the Editor
Thomas M. Spencer is Associate Professor of History at Northwest Missouri State University. He is the author of The St. Louis Veiled Prophet Celebration: Power on Parade, 1877–1995 and editor of The Other Missouri History: Populists, Prostitutes, and Regular Folk (both available from the University of Missouri Press).
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5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended, especially for college library religious studies and American History shelves, May 13 2010
By Midwest Book Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Missouri Mormon Experience (Hardcover)
Thomas M. Spencer (Associate Professor of History, Northwest Missouri State University) lends his editing expertise to The Missouri Mormon Experience, a collection of essays by learned authors discussing the Mormon presence in Missouri during the nineteenth century - and the violence that resulted. Mistrust flared into open conflict, and by 1838, there was a three-month "Mormon War". Governor Lilburn Boggs made the personal decree that the Mormons had to be "exterminated or driven from the state". Reconstructing historical events with a keen eye toward understanding human motives in the context of the time, The Missouri Mormon Experience also reveals that the bloodshed - and subsequent Mormon expulsion - might have been avoided had Joseph Smith chosen the more tolerant Columbia as his new Zion, rather than Jackson County. Extensive notes and an index round out this fascinating historical chronicle of a chapter of strife that pushed the Mormons to ultimately move to Utah - repercussions remain to this modern day and age, for even today many Mormons are suspicious of the state of Missouri. Highly recommended, especially for college library religious studies and American History shelves.
5.0 out of 5 stars
good history, Oct 27 2011
By Samuel Harrison - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Missouri Mormon Experience (Hardcover)
Although combining chapters written by different authors, this book is well-written and edited. The historical perspectives given represent a number of different viewpoints, but they are balanced and insightful. Highly recommended.
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