A Peculiar People: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America Rating :
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Wonderfully written
By Benjamin Fluhman
Fantastic! Carefully and eloquently written. The best academic treatment of the subject. I cant wait for his next book! A pleasure to read.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.An impressively-researched, sophisticated, well-written scholarly analysis of a complicated and controversial topic.
By Klaus Hansen
A novel and refreshing, perceptive and informative account and discussion of a highly controversial topic, anti-Mormonism. While I do not agree entirely with the author's points of view, it always generates the possibility of a lively discussion that is illuminating.
1 of 14 people found the following review helpful.A quality book
By John E. Banks
The book arrived as promised, and in beautiful condition. It is a quality book, well-researched and well-written. It was so nice, my daughter took it.
Product Description
Though the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion, it does not specify what counts as a religion. From its founding in the 1830s, Mormonism, a homegrown American faith, drew thousands of converts but far more critics. In A 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 Mormonism's 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.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #742973 in Books
- Published on: 2012-09-17
- Original language:English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.76" h x7.01" w x.83" l,1.16 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 256 pages
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