|
Ronald Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard
In May 2002, Richard E. Turley, Assistant Church Historian for The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, publicly announced a
forthcoming book on the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Turley traced his
idea for the book to the early 1990s. In the intervening years, a
statement made by Roger V. Logan, a descendant of massacre survivors,
impelled him to proceed. “Until the church shows more candor about what
its historians actually know about the event, true reconciliation will
be elusive,” Logan observed (x). In 2000, Turley persuaded Glen M.
Leonard, former director of the LDS Museum of Church History and Art,
to coauthor the book, and in 2001 he recruited Brigham Young University
history professor Ronald W. Walker. The timing of the announcement,
within months of the release of Will Bagley’s Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows,
implied an intended challenge to that book’s conclusions. While the
Church had not commissioned the book, Turley said, the authors would
have full access to the Church’s relevant archival materials and the
assistance of a large team of researchers. Church leaders would not
“direct the output” of the book. The arrangement represented a mature
willingness on the Church’s part to disclose the sordid details of a
most heinous episode in Mormon history.1 . . .
Book Reviews
Book Notices
Art Reviews
Film Reviews
Music Reviews
New Media Reviews
Theatre Reviews
|
|
|