REL 479: IN TRANSITION, 1880-1930 Fall 2015: Thursdays, 9:00 – 11:50 am McManus 31

Professor J. Spencer Fluhman Office: SAH 21 Office Hour: 1-2 TTh Email: [email protected]

The Course: This course uses Mormonism to ask questions about American identity and religion. Through close examination of the Latter-day Saints' (LDS) “transition” period, we assess what it meant to be Mormon and American in an era of expanding national power. How did a minority faith intersect with dominant notions of American citizenship, identity, and empire? What forms of accommodation and resistance characterized Mormonism's move toward the centers of power? Scholars agree that the this period of LDS integration is significant for understanding the faith's still-conflicted place in the nation, yet it remains curiously understudied. The course mixes analysis of select primary sources with contemporary scholarship and considers topics ranging from partisan politics, theology, gender, and family to economics. A general introduction to Mormonism will frame the course and no previous experience with the tradition or its academic study is expected or required.

Required Texts: Thomas G. Alexander, Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930, 3 ed. (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2012, paperback) Philip L. Barlow, and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion, updated ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, paperback) Matthew B. Bowman, The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith (New York: Random House, 2012, paperback) Richard L. Bushman, Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, paperback) Terryl L. Givens, Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014) , The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004, paperback) Matthew Kester, Remembering Iosepa: History, Place, and Religion in the American West (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013) Reid L. Neilson, Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) Jeffrey Nichols, Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power: Salt Lake City, 1847-1918 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002; paperback 2008) W. Paul Reeve, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015) B. H. Roberts, The Autobiography of B. H. Roberts, ed. Gary Bergera (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1990) , Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987, paperback) Christine Talbot, A Foreign Kingdom: Mormons and Polygamy in American Political Culture, 1852-1890 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013) Annie Clark Tanner, A Mormon Mother: An Autobiography (Salt Lake City: Tanner Trust Fund, University of Library, 2006, paperback) Ethan R. Yorgason, Transformation of the Mormon Culture Region (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003; paperback, 2010)

Assessment: Final grades are based on several brief review essays, a draft and final version of an extended critical essay, and attendance and participation in the seminar. Students should keep track of test dates and assignment deadlines—you may or may not be reminded. The essay draft and final version are worth 100 points each; the 12 brief review essays are worth 10 points each; attendance and participation is worth 25 points. A final grade will be determined by calculating a percentage of the earned points and possible points on the following scale: 94 – 100% A 80 – 83% B- 67 – 69% D+ 90 – 93% A- 77 – 79% C+ 64 – 66% D 87 – 89% B+ 74 – 76% C 60 – 63% D- 84 – 86% B 70 – 73% C- 0 – 59% E

Written Work: A brief written review of each week’s readings help students engage the material critically. Reviews should be at least 600 words in length, use the academic book review as a model, and be submitted via Canvas. Avoid merely summarizing material. Rather, assess the readings in terms of arguments, evidence, methodology, and their place in respective scholarly literature. When a week’s readings comes from two or more sources, the most effective essays will place the readings “in conversation” with one another. Each review is due one hour before the beginning of class. Papers received later in the day are assessed a seven-point penalty. (Consider this the “I had a crazy week and this class doesn’t matter as much to me as my other classes” penalty.) Work turned in thereafter receives no credit.

The extended essay allows students to more deeply engage a course topic. Students will choose a topic early in the seminar and write a draft and final essay that critically examines its scholarly literature. The essay not only reviews existing work on the topic, it critiques it and suggests ways forward. The draft should be at least 10 pages but should represent polished preliminary work. The final version should be at least 15 pages. Extended essay drafts should be turned in via hard copy, in class. Final versions are submitted electronically. Late work on the extended essay (except in cases of genuine emergencies, as determined by me) is assessed a substantial penalty (to be determined on a case-by-case basis).

Note on Seminar Participation: I reserve the right to adjust borderline grades up or down according to attendance and participation in seminar discussion. Texters occupy a special place of contempt in my heart, worlds without end. Simply tell your people that The Man has repressed your texting rights for three hours each week. Electronic devices should be used for course work only, in other words. Other activities—watching videos of bears falling out of trees, adjusting fantasy football rosters, reading up on celebrity gossip—are egregious violations of class policy and will be answered with a cup of steaming wrath, filled to the brim and overflowing. Lecture and Reading Schedule (Note: when “individual options” book titles are listed without page numbers, read the introduction and a chapter that looks interesting.)

Week 1 (September 3): Introducing Course and Craft

Week 2 (September 10): The LDS Tradition/Church/People/Culture at Wide Angle Common Reading: Matthew B. Bowman, The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith (New York: Random House, 2012, paperback) Richard L. Bushman, Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 3 (September 17): Defining the 19th-Century “Mormon Problem” Common Reading: Christine Talbot, A Foreign Kingdom: Mormons and Polygamy in American Political Culture, 1852-1890 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013) Individual Options:

J. Spencer Fluhman, “A Peculiar People”: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012) Terryl L. Givens, The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy, 2 ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013) Sarah Barringer Gordon, The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth Century America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001) Matthew J. Grow, “Contesting the LDS Image: The North American Review and the Mormons, 1881–1907,” Journal of Mormon History 32, no. 2 (2006): 111-138 Megan Sanborn Jones, Performing American Identity in Anti-Mormon Melodrama (New York: Routledge, 2009) Patrick Q. Mason, The Mormon Menace: Violence and Anti-Mormonism in the Postbellum South (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) Leigh E. Schmidt, “Mormons, Freethinkers, and the Limits of Toleration,” Journal of Mormon History 40, no. 2 (2014): 59-91 Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 4 (September 24): Conceptualizing Pivots Common Reading: Jan Shipps, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987, paperback) Individual Options: B. Carmon Hardy, Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992) Edward Leo Lyman, Political Deliverance: The Mormon Quest for Utah Statehood (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986) Armand Mauss, The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle With Assimilation (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994) Thomas W. Simpson, "The Death of Mormon Separatism in American Universities, 1877-1896," Religion and American Culture 22, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 163-201. Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 5 (October 1): Narrating The Pivot Common Reading: Thomas G. Alexander, Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930, 3 ed. (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2012, paperback) Ethan R. Yorgason, Transformation of the Mormon Culture Region (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003; paperback, 2010) Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 6 (October 8): Reorientation Outward … Common Reading: Reid L. Neilson, Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) Individual Options:

Jessie L. Embry and John H. Brambaugh, “Preaching through Playing: Using Sports and Recreation in Missionary Work, 1911–64,” Journal of Mormon History 35, no. 4 (Fall 2009): 53-84 Bradley Kime, “Exhibiting Theology: James E. Talmage and Mormon Public Relations, 1915-20,” Journal of Mormon History 40:1, 208-238 Smith, Konden R. “Appropriating the Secular: Mormonism and the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893,”Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 4 (Fall 2008): 153-80 Carol Cornwall Madsen, “Emmeline B. Wells in Washington: The Search for Mormon Legitimacy,” Journal of Mormon History 26, no. 2 (2000): 140-178 Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 7 (October 15): … and Its Negotiated Resolution Common Reading: Kathleen Flake, The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle (Chapel University of North Carolina Press, 2004) Individual Options: Harvard S. Heath, “The Reed Smoot Hearings: A Quest for Legitimacy,” Journal of Mormon History 33, no. 2 (2007): 1-80 Michael H. Paulos, “Opposing the ‘High Ecclesiasts at Washington’: Frank J. Cannon’s Editorial Fusillades during the Reed Smoot Hearings, 1903–07,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 4 (Fall 2011): 1-59. Michael H. Paulos, “Under the Gun at the Smoot Hearings: Joseph F. Smith’s Testimony,” Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 4 (2008): 181-225 Kenneth L. Cannon II, “‘The Modern Mormon Kingdom’: Frank J. Cannon’s National Campaign against Mormonism, 1910–18,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 4 (Fall 2011): 60-114 Konden R. Smith, “The Reed Smoot Hearings and the Theology of Politics: Perceiving an ‘American’ Identity,” Journal of Mormon History 35, no. 3 (2009): 118-62 Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 8 (October 22): Mormons Telling Stories/Telling Mormon Stories Common Reading: B. H. Roberts, The Autobiography of B. H. Roberts, ed. Gary Bergera (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1990) Annie Clark Tanner, A Mormon Mother: An Autobiography (Salt Lake City: Tanner Trust Fund, Library, 2006) Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 9 (October 29): Paper Drafts Due: at least 10 pages, polished prose, hard copy

Week 10 (November 5): Mormon Bodies and the Crisis of Race Common Reading: W. Paul Reeve, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015) Individual Options: James B. Bennett, “’Until This Curse of Polygamy is Wiped Out’: Black Methodists, White Mormons, and Constructions of Racial Identity in the Late Nineteenth Century,” Religion and American Culture 21, no. 2 (Summer 2011): 167-94. Ben Carter, “Segregating Sanitation in Salt Lake City, 1870-1915,” Utah Historical Quarterly 82:2, 92-113 John-Charles Duffy, “The Use of ‘Lamanite’ in Official LDS Discourse,” Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 1 (2008): 118-67 Armand Mauss, All Abraham’s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003) Max Perry Mueller, “Playing Jane: Re-Presenting Black Mormon Memory Through Reenacting the Black Mormon Past,” Journal of Africana Religions 1, no. 4 (Fall 2013): 513-561 Quincy D. Newell, “’Is There No Blessing For Me?’: Jane James’s Construction of Space in Latter-day Saint History and Practice,” in Quincy D. Newell and Eric F. Mason, eds., New Perspectives in : Creating and Crossing Boundaries (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press), 41-68 Russell W. Stevenson, “‘A Negro Preacher’: The Worlds of Elijah Ables,” Journal of Mormon History 39, no. 2 (Spring 2013): 165-254 Russell W. Stevenson, “Sonia’s Awakening: White Mormon Expatriates in Africa and the Dismantling of Mormonism’s Racial Consensus, 1852–1978,” Journal of Mormon History 40, no. 4 (Fall 2014): 208-47 Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 11 (November 12): Mormon Bodies and the Crisis of Gender Common Reading: Jeffrey Nichols, Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power: Salt Lake City, 1847-1918 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002; paperback 2008) Individual Options: Catherine A. Brekus, “Mormon Women and the Problem of Historical Agency,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 2 (Spring 2011): 59-87 David Hall, “A Crossroads for Mormon Women: Amy Brown Lyman, J. Reuben Clark, and the Decline of Organized Women’s Activism in the Relief Society,” Journal of Mormon History 36, no. 2 (Spring 2010): 205-49 Susanna Morrill, “Relief Society Birth and Death Rituals: Women at the Gates of Mortality,” Journal of Mormon History 36, no. 2 (Spring 2010): 128-159 Michael H. Paulos, “‘Smoot Smites Smut’: Apostle-Senator Reed Smoot’s 1930 Campaign against Obscene Books,” Journal of Mormon History 40, no. 1 (2014): 53-96 Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 1-87 Lisa Olsen Tait, “The 1890s Mormon Culture of Letters and the Post-Manifesto Marriage Crisis: A New Approach to Home Literature,” BYU Studies Quarterly 52, no. 1 (2013): 98-124 Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 12 (November 19): Mapping Mormon Migrations Common Reading: Matthew Kester, Remembering Iosepa: History, Place, and Religion in the American West (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)

Individual Options: Reid L. Neilson, Early Mormon Missionary Activities in Japan, 1901-1924 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2010) Kim B. Östman, “From Finland to Zion: Immigration to Utah in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Mormon History 36, no. 4 (Fall 2010): 166-207 Joseph Barnard Romney, “‘The Lord, God of Israel, Brought Us out of Mexico!’: Junius Romney and the 1912 Mormon Exodus,” Journal of Mormon History 36, no. 4 (Fall 2010): 208-58 Robin Russell, “It Was Awful in Its Majesty”: Mary Ann Burnham Freeze’s 1892 Mission to San Juan,” Journal of Mormon History 39, no. 4 (2013): 121-43 John C. Thomas, “Apostolic Diplomacy: The 1923 European Mission of Senator Reed Smoot and Professor John A. Widtsoe,” Journal of Mormon History 28, no. 1 (2002): 130-165 Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 13 (November 26): Thanksgiving Recess No Class

Week 14 (December 3): Mormons and Scripture Philip L. Barlow, Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion, updated ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013) Matthew B. Bowman, “The Crisis of Mormon Christology: History, Progress, and Protestantism,” Fides Et Historia: The Journal of the Conference on Faith and History 40, no. 2 (Fall 2008): 1-27 Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 15 (December 10): Systematizing LDS Theology Common Reading: Terryl L. Givens, Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014) Individual options: Matthew B. Bowman, “James Talmage, B. H. Roberts, and Confessional History in a Secular Age,” in Miranda Wilcox and John D. Young, Standing Apart: Mormon Historical Consciousness and the Concept of Apostasy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 77-92 Clyde D. Ford, “Materialism and Mormonism: The Early Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Dr. John A. Widtsoe,” Journal of Mormon History 36, no. 3 (Summer 2010): 1-36 Susanna Morrill, White Roses on the Floor of Heaven: Mormon Women’s Popular Theology, 1880-1920 (New York: Routledge, 2006) B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Doctrine of Deity: The Roberts-Van Der Donckt Discussion (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998) O. Kendall White, Jr., Mormon Neo-Orthodoxy: A Crisis Theology (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1987) John A. Widtsoe, Rational Theology (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997) Writing: brief review essay due one hour before class, 600 words, via Canvas

Week 16 (Dec. 14-19): Final Examination Period Final Papers due via Canvas by midnight on Saturday, December 19; 15 pages