Mormonism is said to have been founded on April 6, 1830, in Fayette, NY, when The Book of Mormon was published. Please enjoy this curated list of books and journal articles that provide a glimpse into LDS thought, culture, and theology.
Forever Familias: Race, Gender, and Indigeneity in Peruvian Mormonism
By Jason Palmer
How Peruvian Saints protect their Indigenous identities.
Review Article by Simon Coleman: “Moving Histories: On Mobility, Materiality, and Experience in Mormon Heritage”
In her engaging account of the intersections of Mormon history, memory, and place across the American West, Sara Patterson often returns to a striking narrative—one that is well known within LDS Church circles. It describes the occasion in 1847 when Brigham Young is said to have looked out at the Salt Lake Valley and declared, “This is the place.”
Sins of Christendom: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Evangelicalism
By Nathaniel Wiewora
A clash of antebellum faiths and its outcomes.
“The Founding Document of the Mormon West” by Rick Grunder and Paul E. Cohen
With one exception, no major city can trace its origin to its first hour of existence and to a single individual. That exception is Salt Lake City. Brigham Young founded the capital of Utah at five o’clock on the afternoon of July 28, 1847.
The Testimony of Two Nations: How the Book of Mormon Reads, and Rereads, the Bible
By Michael Austin
Understanding the Book of Mormon on its own terms and through its two-way connection with the Bible.
“Utah’s Forgotten Pioneer of 1847” by David Lyle Wood
For well over a hundred years, the list of original Mormon pioneers has remained unchanged—almost sacrosanct. It has been published time and time again. Yet it is true; Franklin G. Losee was not one of them. Where did this name come from?
Joseph White Musser: A Mormon Fundamentalist
By Cristina M. Rosetti
The life and still-influential work of a Mormon non-conformist.
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
Review Article by Aaron Lisec: “The Joseph Smith Papers: Documents, Volumes 7–11: September 1839–February 1843”
This five-volume sequence of the Joseph Smith Papers project constitutes an essential resource for anyone studying the experience of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) in Illinois. The story of this rise from the ashes is told through a wide variety of documents, mostly held in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City and in other church-related repositories.
Latter-day Saint Perspectives on Atonement
Edited by Deidre Nicole Green and Eric D. Huntsman
New approaches to a central area of Latter-day Saint belief.
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought **OPEN ACCESS**
“Personal Reflections on the Founding of Dialogue” by Paul G. Salisbury
“The idea of starting a Mormon publication had certainly occurred to many before the appearance of Dialogue. It first surfaced in my mind in the 1950s.”
A Word in Season: Isaiah’s Reception in the Book of Mormon
By Joseph M. Spencer
A groundbreaking look at the relationship between two sacred texts.