Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism [Hardcover]

Marvin S. Hill (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Signature Books; First edition. edition (June 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941214702
• ISBN-13: 978-0941214704
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,050,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Analysis of Early Mormon History, January 12, 2004

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism (Hardcover)

Marvin S. Hill's "Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism" (1989) analyzes Mormonism as a movement steeped in disgust for American society and an attempt to build a refuge that would be able to weather a great apocalypse that was soon to come upon the Earth. Those who embraced Mormonism, Hill argued, saw little of worth in American civilization. "They wanted a society that would exclude unnecessary choices and would exclude pluralism," he wrote. "Above all, they wanted to diminish the secular influences that pluralism engendered" (p. 14).

The Latter-day Saint movement was founded on a paranoia that the world had gone awry and would subvert or coopt them if it had the chance. The result was an effort to close off the outside world, "to revitalize this magical world view [of Medieval society, to] combine it with elements of more traditional Christianity, and [to] establish a theocratic society where the unconverted, the poor, and the socially and religiously alienated could gather and find a refuge from the competing sects and the uncertainties they engendered" (p. 17).

It is a powerful thesis, masterfully argued and one that should be pondered seriously by all those seeking to understand the early history of Mormonism.

I highly recommend this book. Although it is out of print, find a second-hand copy, read it, and lend it to your friends.