Classic Texts

Books in this category precede the last fifteen years, and stand the test of time as Mormon Studies "classics."

Thomas G. Alexander

Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986.

Leonard J. Arrington

Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958.

Philip L. Barlow

Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-Day Saints in American Religion. New York: Oxford, 1991.

Richard L. Bushman

Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

Richard L. Bushman

Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York: Knopf, 2005.

Todd M. Compton

In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997.

Kathryn Daynes

More Wives Than One: Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840-1910. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher

Women of the Covenant: The Story of the Relief Society. Salt Lake: Deseret Book, 1992.

Kathleen Flake

The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Terryl L. Givens

By The Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion. New York: Oxford, 2002.

Sarah Barringer Gordon

The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

B. Carmon Hardy
Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.

Armand L. Mauss

The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994.

Sterling M. McMurrin
Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion. Salt Lake: University of Utah Press, 1974.

Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery

Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, 2nd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994.

Gregory A. Prince

Power from on High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995.

D. Michael Quinn

Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998.

D. Michael Quinn

Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997.

D. Michael Quinn

Origins of Power. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994.

D. Michael Quinn

Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001.

Jan Shipps

Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.

Wallace Stegner

The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.

Susan Taber

Mormon Lives: A Year in the Elkton Ward. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.