John G. Turner is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University.
Brigham Young is a landmark work… There is no aspect of Young’s
fascinating life that eludes Turner’s scrutiny.
*New York Times Book Review*
A definitive biography of Mormonism’s greatest activist and
apostle.
*New Yorker*
A major accomplishment that, more than any past treatment of Young,
situates the protean prophet squarely in the context of his
turbulent times. Turner is not a member of The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, and brings to Young an emotional
objectivity and distance that greatly benefit his profile of the
19th century Mormon leader and colonizer… Turner unflinchingly
tackles the full spectrum, warts and all, of Young’s multifarious
personality and life… For Turner, no topic is off-limits, too
controversial, too intimate. He exhibits a healthy skepticism and
curiosity that are as bracing as they are salutary… He is balanced,
insightful, sympathetic, even occasionally affectionate. Turner’s
Young is a far cry from the (take your pick) superficial,
cartoonish, angelic/devilish caricatures of most popularized
portrayals. He is a fully rendered, flesh-and-blood,
flawed-but-earnest human being who sincerely believed he had been
‘called’ to govern God’s new covenant people as heaven’s
representative. The biography adds much to both our understanding
and appreciation of Young.
*Salt Lake Tribune*
[A] magnificent new biography… [Turner’s] book should establish him
as one of the best religious historians of his generation. Turner
had unfettered access to Young’s papers, and his keen eye for
social context makes this book an excellent introduction to the
story of Mormonism as well as an essential addition to the history
of the American West. It should also do for Brigham Young what
Richard Lyman Bushman’s Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling did for
the Mormon prophet: make the case not only that Young was one of
the most fascinating people of the 19th century but also that his
importance in American history can no longer be overlooked. Indeed,
some of that history will have to be revised to fit this ‘pioneer
prophet’ into its narrative… Turner’s prose is so smooth and his
interpretations so balanced that I suspect Mormonism’s defenders
and detractors alike will flock to this book… Turner is not a
member of the Mormon church, which makes his achievement all the
more remarkable.
*Books & Culture*
The great virtue of John G. Turner’s new biography of Brigham
Young—the first major study since LDS historian Leonard Arrington’s
Brigham Young: American Moses (1985)—is the author’s stolid
resistance to either version of the traditional Young
caricature.
*The Nation*
Turner offers an unflinching account of Young’s life ‘within the
context of mid-19th-century American religion and politics,’ yet
evinces throughout a sympathetic understanding of the way Young and
the Mormon pioneers saw themselves: as a chosen people delivered by
God from their persecutors and led to a latter-day Zion… Turner’s
portrait is of a man both great and greatly flawed.
*National Review*
Previous biographers of Brigham Young have used epithets such as
‘American Moses’ and ‘Lion of the Lord.’ However, what Turner
demonstrates here is that the three-dimensional Young cannot be
reduced to saint or tyrant; he was bold, brave, crude, petty,
visionary, manipulative, creative, charismatic, kindly, and much
more besides. He presents Young as a family man navigating the
complexities of polygamy, as a leader moving large numbers of
people across the Great Plains, and as a politician negotiating
enough independence for the Mormons from the American government
that he could build the kingdom of God as he saw fit. Turner was
given unprecedented access to the LDS church archives and he makes
full use of them and other sources, as well as providing a cogent
interpretive context. It is easy to forget Young’s significance in
American history, but at a minimum it needs to be remembered that
he is responsible for settling a vast swath of the West. Turner
gives him his due… There aren’t enough superlatives for this book.
It will remain the standard biography for a long time. Because of
its thorough documentation, academics will take it seriously, while
general readers will appreciate its clarity of prose and
argument.
*Library Journal (starred review)*
In his richly researched new biography of Brigham Young, John G.
Turner not only profiles the man who brought the church to Utah,
but also satisfies both high-minded and lowbrow curiosity about
this most American of religions.
*Boston Globe*
A comprehensive biography of Young and his times… It is an
exceptional work… We can learn a lot about the development of
Mormon theology from Turner’s book, far more than can be gleaned
from previous biographies of Young… Turner is at his best when he
is placing the elements of Young’s life within the main contours of
broader 19th-century America… Those who want to know more about
Mormonism’s birth and growth will want to get a copy.
*Christian Century*
[Turner] provides an admirably balanced account of this complex
man, and his little-understood and frequently reviled faith… When
finished with this superb biography, readers will find [Brigham
Young] less of a curiosity but still fascinating.
*Cleveland Plain Dealer*
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.
*Irish Times*
John G. Turner’s new biography of Brigham Young…portrays a social
experiment, the most ambitious in American history, that until
Young’s death in 1877 explicitly rejected the core values of
Victorian capitalism: possessive individualism and Darwinian
competition.
*Los Angeles Review of Books*
[A] strong and authoritative biography.
*New Republic*
[An] exceptionally well-researched and endlessly interesting
biography.
*The Scotsman*
Fascinating… Young very much emerges with his faults manifest in
Turner’s impressive biography. At the same time, [Brigham Young]
takes Mormon studies forward, avoiding the pitfalls of apologia and
polemic.
*Standpoint*
Turner’s broad historical perspective clarifies why Young’s
ecclesiastical successors have still felt the man’s influence—even
after abandoning polygamy. An impressively detailed portrait of a
controversial giant.
*Booklist (starred review)*
[Turner] presents a very thoughtful, well-contextualized account of
a complex and contradictory religious leader who was profane as
well as pious and powerful. The book traces the development of an
aimless young man who became the prophet and president of a
sprawling theocracy. Turner offers a fair consideration of Young…
This well-researched, readable biography will satisfy all but the
most partisan reader.
*Choice*
A scholarly yet thoroughly readable historical/biographical study,
of considerable interest to students of 19th-century American
history and religious revivalism.
*Kirkus Reviews*
Inextricably tied together by bonds of fate and faith, Brigham
Young and Mormonism rose as one in nineteenth-century America. It
is that America, as well as that man and that religion, that Turner
explores and explains so well in this wonderful book.
*William Deverell, Director, Huntington–USC Institute on California
and the West*
Turner’s treatment of the complex Brigham Young is unsentimental,
cogent, critical, and fair. It takes its place alongside Leonard
Arrington’s magisterial American Moses as the essential, mutually
challenging portraits of one of America’s greatest colonizers and
religious figures.
*Philip L. Barlow, author of Mormons and the Bible: The Place of
the Latter-day Saints in American Religion*
The story Turner tells in this elegantly written biography will
startle and shock many readers. He reveals a Brigham Young more
violent and coarse than the man Mormons have known. While lauding
his achievements as pioneer, politician, and church leader, the
book will require a reassessment of Brigham Young the man.
*Richard Bushman, author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone
Rolling*
In this superb new biography, Turner’s strong narrative, human
insight, knowledge of context, meticulous use of sources, and
sophisticated appreciation of Mormon theology combine to create an
account of his larger-than-life subject that is at once
informative, judicious, and profoundly engaging.
*Daniel Walker Howe, author of What Hath God Wrought: The
Transformation of America, 1815–1848*
Turner provides a searing portrait of a leader at his most
determined and—at times—ruthless in defense of his religion. A
provocative and compelling view of one of the most elusive, yet
influential, figures in our nation’s westward expansion.
*Ken Verdoia, author of Utah: The Struggle for Statehood*
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