Overview

In the closing decades of the nineteenth century, college-age Latter-daySaints began undertaking a remarkable intellectual pilgrimage to the nation’selite universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Michigan, Chicago, andStanford. Thomas W. Simpson chronicles the academic migration of hundredsof LDS students from the 1860s through the late 1930s, when churchauthority J. Reuben Clark Jr., himself a product of the Columbia UniversityLaw School, gave a reactionary speech about young Mormons’ search forintellectual cultivation. Clark's leadership helped to set conservative parametersthat in large part came to characterize Mormon intellectual life.At the outset, Mormon women and men were purposefully dispatched tosuch universities to “gather the world’s knowledge to Zion.” Simpson, drawingon unpublished diaries, among other materials, shows how LDS studentscommonly described American universities as egalitarian spaces that fostereda personally transformative sense of freedom to explore provisionalreconciliations of Mormon and American identities and religious and scientificperspectives. On campus, Simpson argues, Mormon separatism diedand a new, modern Mormonism was born: a Mormonism at home in theUnited States but at odds with itself. Fierce battles among Mormon scholarsand church leaders ensued over scientific thought, progressivism, and thehistoricity of Mormonism’s sacred past. The scars and controversy, Simpsonconcludes, linger.

Full Product Details

9781469628639

Table of Contents

Reviews

After reading American Universities, readers come away sensing some of the impact that higher education has had on the Church--BYU Studies Quarterly Provides an excellent prologue of a critical period leading to the coming of age of modern Mormons.--History of Education Quarterly Excellent scholarship on social and educational history as it pertains to religion. Highly recommended.--Choice An important, well-written, and engaging volume. . . . Should now be required reading for any Mormon academic, regardless of their field.--Association for Mormon Letters Simpson's insights should be incorporated into future discussions on what is often an oversimplified historical narrative.--Reading Religion An admirably nuanced narrative.--Journal of Mormon History

An important, well-written, and engaging volume. . . . Should now be required reading for any Mormon academic, regardless of their field.--<i>Association for Mormon Letters</i>

An important, well-written, and engaging volume. . . . Should now be required reading for any Mormon academic, regardless of their field.--Association for Mormon Letters

Simpson's insights should be incorporated into future discussions on what is often an oversimplified historical narrative.--Reading Religion

An admirably nuanced narrative.--Journal of Mormon History Excellent scholarship on social and educational history as it pertains to religion. Highly recommended.--Choice An important, well-written, and engaging volume. . . . Should now be required reading for any Mormon academic, regardless of their field.--Association for Mormon Letters Simpson's insights should be incorporated into future discussions on what is often an oversimplified historical narrative.--Reading Religion

Author Information

Thomas W. Simpson, a specialist in modern U.S. religious history, is instructor in religion and philosophy at Phillips Exeter Academy.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available