A Peculiar People, J. Spencer Fluhman
A Peculiar People, J. Spencer Fluhman
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A Peculiar People
Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America

Author: J. Spencer Fluhman

Narrator: John Pruden

Unabridged: 5 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/17/2012


Synopsis

Though the Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion, it does not specify what qualifies as a religion. From its founding in the 1830s, Mormonism, a homegrown American faith, has drawn thousands of converts but far more critics. InA Peculiar People, J. Spencer Fluhman offers a comprehensive history of anti-Mormon thought and the associated passionate debates about religious authenticity in nineteenth-century America. He argues that understanding anti-Mormonism provides critical insight into the American psyche because Mormonism became a potent symbol around which ideas about religion and the state took shape. Fluhman documents how Mormonism was defamed, with attacks often aimed at polygamy, and shows how the new faith supplied a social enemy for a public agitated by the popular press and wracked with social and economic instability. Taking the story to the turn of the century, Fluhman demonstrates how Mormonisms own transformations, the result of both choice and outside force, sapped the strength of the worst anti-Mormon vitriol, triggering the acceptance of Utah into the Union in 1896 and also paving the way for the dramatic, yet still grudging, acceptance of Mormonism as an American religion.

About J. Spencer Fluhman

J. Spencer Fluhman is assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bren

fascinating, flawed apologia for mormonism against its 19th c. critics masquerading as critical study of meaning of religion. not fully successful in either, i think, but better when its the latter. obvs your preconceptions of the usefulness of mormon doctrine will influence your reading but i find......more

Goodreads review by Jenny

Excellent. Solid research and insightful analysis, written clearly and argued well. Fluhman skillfully connects the more particular details of the shifts in anti Mormonism to the larger cultural-historical events; one learns as much about the peculiar history of Mormonism about the entanglement betw......more

Goodreads review by William

Concisely written, though don't mistake it for light reading. Some "initiation" into the academic study of Mormonism is required, else this book would be incomprehensible. Despite being a by BYU professor, the book has no heavy handed pro-mormon agenda. It is a very interesting and illuminating wind......more

Goodreads review by Jordan

Great book to understand early Anti-Mormonism and their claims against the church. Not a light read as Fluhman uses some hefty language that took the use of a dictionary often. I would highly recommend this as an authoritative text on the time period. Very interesting read.......more