Reddit reviews Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet

Oooo this is my wheelhouse!

First, I would recommend looking at the Mormon History Association Best Book awards going back to 1966. Quality scholarship, research, and writing are a mainstay with them.

Required reading:

Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet by John Turner / Brigham Young: American Moses by Leonard Arrington

Considered two of the best books about early Utah and the Brigham Young years. Arrington's book was considered groundbreaking when he wrote it, and Turner's book brings in the valuable perspective of the non-Mormon writing about Young. For many Mormons, Turner's book will be less sympathetic to Young than Arrington's, but Turner also worked closely with the Church Archives (and spoke glowingly about them and that process), so his research had access to some better sources. If you need a primer for Brigham Young, I recommend Arrington's book. For a Brigham Young graduate level course, I recommend Turner.

Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview by Michael Quinn

To understand much of what happened in early Mormonism, you must understand the role that folk magic played in the lives of Americans in the 1800s. Quinn's research at this time was top notch, and he was a quickly rising star among Mormon historians. Considered one of his best works, and foundational to the understanding things like seer stones, divining rods, visions, and everything else that happened in the early church days.

David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism by Greg Prince

Covers late 1940s - 1960s Mormonism, one of the "rising moments" of Mormonism when we went from a Utah-church to a worldwide church. Prince had amazing access to the journals of President McKay's secretary, which led to some candid discussions about things like the publishing of Mormon Doctrine by McConkie, blacks and the priesthood, ecumenical outreach, and politics.

Spencer W. Kimball by Edward Kimball / Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball by Edward Kimball

Ed was Pres. Kimball's son, and the books cover both the apostle years and presidency years of Spencer W. Kimball. If you had to choose one, get Lengthen Your Stride, but make sure it has the CD that comes with the book. This has the unabridged manuscript prior to the Deseret Book edits, which is much more interesting.

By the Hand of Mormon by Terryl Givens (heck...anything by Terryl Givens!)

I'll admit - I'm a Terryl Givens fanboy. By the Hand of Mormon was the one that first got me in to him, mostly because he took the Book of Mormon as a serious work of literature to examine it's merits. It's not as devotional as many traditional LDS books about the Book of Mormon (it was put out by Oxford University Press), but it really gave me a deeper appreciation for the Book of Mormon as contemporary literature. Also check out Viper on the Hearth (Mormons on myth and heresy), People of Paradox (Mormon culture), When Souls had Wings (the pre-existence in Western thought), and so many others.

And just because I'm a big book nerd, here's the list of books that are on my desk right now that I can give you quick reviews if you want:

• Leonard Arrington and the Writing of Mormon History by Greg Prince
  
• The Mormon Jesus: A Biography by John Turner
  
• Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings, edited by Brooks, Steenblik and Wheelwright
  
• Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness by W. Paul Reeve
  
• Pedestals and Podiums: Utah Women, Religious Authority and Equal Rights by Martha Sonntag Bradley
  
• A Reason for Faith: Navigating LDS Doctrine & Church History, edited by Laura Harris Hales
  
• Glorious in Persecution: Joseph Smith, American Prophet 1839-1844 by Martha Bradley Evans
  
• The Mormon Church & Blacks: A Documentary History, edited by Harris & Bringhurst
  
• From the Outside Looking In: Essays on Mormon History, Theology and Culture, edited by Neilson & Grow
  
• Out of Obscurity: Mormonism since 1945, edited by Mason & Turner
  
• Mormonism & American Politics, edited by Balmer & Riess
  
• Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics by Campbell, Green & Monson
  
• A Book of Mormons: Latter-day Saints on a Modern-Day Zion, edited by Jensen & McKay-Lamb
  
• Revelations in Context: The Stories Behind the Sections of the Doctrine & Covenants by the LDS Church
  
• Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805-1830 by Richard S. Van Wagoner
  
• Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths by Ann Taves (looking at Mormonism, Alcoholics Anonymous and A Course in Miracles)
  
• A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
  
• Baring Witness: 36 Mormon Women Talk Candidly about Love, Sex, and Marriage edited by Holly Welker

Yes, Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet by John Turner.

Edit: Turner is a non-mormon. He likes mormons and Mormonism so he's able to write a non-hagiographic biography and doesn't need to apologize or justify every questionable act BY did into a faithful paradigm. It's s well written professional biography on an important figure in settling the American West.

Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674416856/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_fr6iDbCXS91S1

Wait until you get a load of the TBM hate mail for Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet:

>Turner,

> I just finished reading your book on the Prophet Brigham Young. I have decided that you must be the same person who prosecuted the duke lacrosse team or wrote the story for rolling stone on the university of Virginia rape case. For as much time you spent researching the life of Brother Brigham, you must have spent twice as much time figuring out how you would exclude the vast majority of information and meaning of the life of that man so you could paint politically motivated tainted lies with your propagandist brush. Did it ever cross your mind that if Brigham Young was such a hated tyrant, even by his own people as you claim, a miserable failure at politics, leadership, religion making and virtually every idea that came to his mind, that he perhaps wouldn't be at the roots of the greatest American religious and colonization movement in history? He lead and help create a movement of people that today boasts in the millions of the most productive, civil and prominent citizens in the world. We are the leading demographic social statistic in every possible positive category in the country. Thank God for the principles that man gave us, I.E. Polygamy, consecration, gathering, Adam God and blood atonement, lest we might be mixed with the rest of you miserable, egalitarian trash. More so thank God for those principles for what they will give us in the next life. I look forward to that time when all those souls whose sincerity and virtue were tarnished because of your selfish lies and hatred against the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his anointed, ask for an accounting of your actions and the price of your soul for the costs of their own. Perhaps the Prophet Brigham Young will be handed your soul to judge and if that is the case you better hope that the man chooses not to act upon you with the pugnacious, murderous, tyrannical characteristics you have portrayed him with. For if he judges you as you have judged him, fire and brimstone lack the authenticity of where your fate lies.

I've not read it myself, but I hear that Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet by John G. Turner gives an honest assessment of the man without attempting to either slander him or sugarcoat his story. Have heard good things about the book from both Mormons and non-Mormons.

Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674416856/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jCAWzbVJEYN53