The Autobiography of B.H. Roberts [Paperback]

Gary James Bergera (Author), Brigham H. Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2009

In this exiting and readable autobiography, one of the most colorful figures of the American frontier recounts his poverty-stricken childhood, his rowdy adolescence in Rocky Mountain mining camps, his unsuccessful bid for the U. S. Congress and his stormy career in one of the leading councils of the Mormon church. Polygamy, womenÂ’s suffrage, prohibition, and separation of church and state all occupy center stage in the unfolding drama of Brigham Henry RobertsÂ’s controversial life. RobertsÂ’s story-book adventures made him a household name during his lifetime. His impassioned speeches incited riots, his reasoned writings defined and codified religious beliefs, and his candid disclosures of Utah history brought him both respect and censure. His best remembered today as a largely self-educated intellectual. Several of his landmark published works are still in print more than sixty years after his death. His life story, told here in his own works and now published for the first time, is revealing and honest and may well stand as his greatest, most enduring achievement.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gary James Bergera is managing director of the Smith-Pettit Foundation in Salt Lake City, former managing director of Signature Books, former managing editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, co-author of Brigham Young University: A House of Faith (which granted him a B.A. and M.P.A.), and editor of Line Upon Line: Essays on Mormon Doctrine and The Autobiography of B. H. Roberts. He is a contributing author to The Prophet Puzzle: Interpretive Essays on Joseph Smith, Religion, Feminism, and Freedom of Conscience: A Mormon/Humanist Dialogue, and The Search for Harmony: Essays on Science and Mormonism. He is the recipient of a Best Article Award from the Mormon History Association.

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Signature Books (March 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560850051
• ISBN-13: 978-1560850052
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The man behind the mind., February 18, 2002

By 

Kendal B. Hunter (Provo, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Autobiography of B.H. Roberts (Paperback)

This book is the polished version of Elder B. H. Robert's autobiographical notes that he hastily dictated in his waning years. He had enough sense of history to realize that he himself was a hot historical item.

The polished version is in first person, and was obviously dictated, which is an asset. B. H. Roberts was one of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint's greatest orators, apologists, and scrappers, so the autobiography has the same rhetorical punchy-ness that that makes reading this book pure eye candy.

It is written in the first person, and Elder Roberts exposes his soul as he tells of his early childhood in Dickens's England, his emigration and journey to Salt Lake City, his hardpan life in the west, and his eventual embracing of the Mormonism. This man had one wild life, from rescuing the bodies of two missionaries that had been killed by a mob in the south, to running for the House of Representatives, and being denied a seat because he was a polygamist.

I confess that reading the life of the man is only half the story. Roberts had a very keen and grabby intellect, so you need to read his philosophical and theological works in addition to studying his life. He is considered the best intellectual among the Latter-day Saints. This is a very high honor, considering that he had a bare-minimum education, and was illiterate for the first eight years of his life. He was a self-made intellectual. Why do we, who have so much, do so little?

The only drawback is that Elder Roberts relied on memory as he was dictating, so some of the dates aren't accurate. Dr. Truman G. Madsen has written the definitive, and so far the only biography of B. H. Roberts called "Defender of the Faith: The B. H. Roberts Story," which is a better book, since it fills in the gaps, rounds out the edges, and gets deeper into his philosophy.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Autobiography of B.H. Roberts, March 24, 2000

By 

Paul R. DeBry (Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Autobiography of B.H. Roberts (Paperback)

I was reading this on an airplane and told some of the stories in the book to the fellow sitting next to me. He was so interested that I just gave him the book so he could read it for himself.

This is the story of a 9 year old boy who comes to America from England with his 11 year old sister. The year is about 1867. The two of them cross the ocean, then they cross the country to the Salt Lake Valley in a covered wagon company. It is just amazing how he could survive such an ordeal. He has no shoes for most of the trip, and no coat or change of clothes. His shrit and pants are made from a policeman's coat in England. His sister gives him her slip to cover him at night and then he gives it back to her to wear in the morning. One night he climbs in a barrel to sleep. It has molasses in the bottem. He is too tired to climb our and so sleeps in it anyway. The next morning he is covered with the sticky surup. The only clothes he has are so covered with dust by the end of the day that they are no longer sticky. There are many touching stories in this book. His sister is so tender hearted that her tears drop on his feet as she picks the thorns from his bear feet each evening.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I couldn't put it down.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I really wanted to like this., June 26, 2009

By 

Sarah B. Broadbent "SarahSandsSinking" (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Autobiography of B.H. Roberts (Paperback)

I really wanted to like this, but the language is archaic and rambling. I made it through the first 20 pages, but couldn't handle anymore. I am familiar with his amazing story, and I had hoped his prose would carry me through, but alas, no.