The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints

Here is the best, one-volume history of that eccentric American religious movement known as Mormonism. Arrington and Bitton (both of them now deceased) were two of the first and the finest practitioners of what is known as the "New Mormon History," an historiography that attempted to combine the finest skills of the historian with either a professed faith commitment to Mormonism, or at minimum a healthy skepticism thereof. In other words, "New Mormon Historians" neither produced history that was subordinated to and in service of Mormonism claims of faith, nor that was overtly antagonistic to and suspicious of anything and all things Mormon.
In this case, Arrington and Bitton succeeded admirably. Both were men of faith--Arrington once show more served as LDS Church Historian (a period known to Mormon historians as "the age of Camelot"), and Bitton was his chief assistant. When both were overthrown by conservative Mormons--chiefly Boyd K. Packer, now the President of Mormonism's so-called "Quorum of the Twelve" and next in line to the Church's presidency--Arrington went quietly to BYU and Bitton to the U of Utah, retiring into academia. Yet both continued to produce works of substance, thwarting Packer's hope to have silenced them permanently.
"The Mormon Experience" does not accept Mormonism's faith claims blindly, nor does it discount them. It is a fine example of two faithful individuals combining their faith with scholarship. Their fine and courageous example has since been a lodestar for many who wrestle with Mormonism's rather outrageous historical claims--angels toting gold plates; temple ceremonies that smack of historical anomalies and Masonic ceremonies; and Joseph Smith's voracious sexual appetites--when weighed against many of its genuine theological insights and innovations.
I for one am glad to have this volume in my library. show less