Customer Reviews

Doing the Works of Abraham, Mormon Polygamy: Its Origin, Practice, and Demise (Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier)

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The ninth volume of The Arthur H. Clark Company 'Kingdom in the West: the Mormons and the American Frontier' series, "Doing The Works Of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy, Its Origin, Practice, And Demise" by academician and Mormon historian B. Carmon Hardy (Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, Fullerton) is a history of the peculiar theological doctrine of 'Celestial Marriage' that commanded male members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints under the successive leadership of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and John Taylor to practice polygamy as a form of sanctified marriage. From its shadowy inception in Nauvoo, Illinois in the 1830s to its public proclamation in 1852, and through almost forty years of conflict with the federal government, polygamy was an honored practice within the Church until the Mormon leadership renounced the practice in 1890 in order to become a state, quell dissent within Church ranks, and deprive their opponents of an effective weapon in argument of what was considered by the broader American society as a scandalous practice. Especially recommended for students of Mormon History in general and the practice of polygamy in particular, "Doing The Works Of Abraham" is an impressive work of meticulous scholarship and a seminal contribution to academic library 19th Century American History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Doing The Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy : Its Origin, Practice, and Demise (Kingdom in the West : the Mormons and the American Frontier, Volume 9) Hardy's previous book on Mormon polygamy, Solumn Covenant, was heretofore the best book on the subject I've ever read. However, in this book he equals if not surpasses that by bringing together in one volume, not only his own narrative on the subject from 1831 to 1933. but includes primary documents on the subject, both pro- and anti-. It was a fascinating and illuminating read.