Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet - Softcover

John G. Turner

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674416856 ISBN 13: 9780674416857

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. He trudged around the United States and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than fifty women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. While previous accounts of his life have been distorted by hagiography or polemical expose, John Turner provides a fully realized portrait of a colossal figure in American religion, politics, and westward expansion. After the 1844 murder of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Young gathered those Latter-day Saints who would follow him and led them over the Rocky Mountains. In Utah, he styled himself after the patriarchs, judges, and prophets of ancient Israel. As charismatic as he was autocratic, he was viewed by his followers as an indispensable protector and by his opponents as a theocratic, treasonous heretic. Under his fiery tutelage, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints defended plural marriage, restricted the place of African Americans within the church, fought the U.S. Army in 1857, and obstructed federal efforts to prosecute perpetrators of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. At the same time, Young's tenacity and faith brought tens of thousands of Mormons to the American West, imbued their everyday lives with sacred purpose, and sustained his church against adversity. Turner reveals the complexity of this spiritual prophet, whose commitment made a deep imprint on his church and the American Mountain West."

About this title

Product Description

Title: Brigham Young( Pioneer Prophet) <>Binding: Paperback <>Author: JohnG.Turner <>Publisher: BelknapPress

Review

Young's life is admirably chronicled in this fine new biography The character who emerges from Turner's elegantly written and well-researched biography is a man for whom the word 'protean' might almost have been invented. He became one of the foremost colonizers of American history, leading the Mormons on a perilous journey to the Great Basin and laying claim to approximately a sixth of the western United States Turner shows [Young] to be a shrewd and subtle politician Turner's story never drags, partly because the tale itself is so fascinating, but also because he writes with clarity and energy. --Richard Aldous"Irish Times" (09/22/2012)"

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0674416856
• ISBN 13: 9780674416857
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512