A Peculiar People: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America

by J. Spencer Fluhman

Overview

Though the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion, it does not specify what counts as a religion. From its founding in the 1830s, Mormonism, a homegrown American faith, drew thousands of converts but far more critics. In "A Peculiar People", J. Spencer Fluhman offers a comprehensive history of anti-Mormon thought and the associated passionate debates about religious authenticity in nineteenth-century America. He argues that understanding anti-Mormonism provides critical insight into the American psyche because Mormonism became a potent symbol around which ideas about religion and the state took shape.
Fluhman documents how Mormonism was defamed, with attacks often aimed at polygamy, and shows how the new faith supplied a social enemy for a public agitated by the popular press and wracked with social and economic instability. Taking the story to the turn of the century, Fluhman demonstrates how Mormonism's own transformations, the result of both choice and outside force, sapped the strength of the worst anti-Mormon vitriol, triggering the acceptance of Utah into the Union in 1896 and also paving the way for the dramatic, yet still grudging, acceptance of Mormonism as an American religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469618852
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/01/2014
Edition description:	1
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

J. Spencer Fluhman is assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University.

Table of Contents

Prologue. On Familiarity and Contempt 1

Introduction. Religious Liberty as an American Problem 9

Chapter 1 "Impostor": The Mormon Prophet 21

Authenticity and Disestablishment 24

Interlopers in the Protestant Historical Pantheon 29

Counterfeiters of Faith and Currency 39

Chapter 2 "Delusion": Early Mormon Religiosity 49

Mormon Spirituality and the Threat of Enthusiasm 52

Religion, Madness, and the Search for Rational Faith 61

Enlightened Christianity and the Problem of Mormon Evidence 66

Chapter 3 "Fanaticism": The Church as (Un)Holy City 79

The Political Burden of the Mormon Gathering 83

The Discovery of a Mormon Theology 91

The Politics of Expulsion 95

Chapter 4 "Barbarism": Rhetorics of Alienation 103

Empire(s) in the West 105

The Problem of Mormon Whiteness 110

Mormon Women, the Ungrateful Objects of American Pity 117

Chapter 5 "Heresy": Americanizing the American Religion 127

Mormonism in the Crowd of World Religions 129

Textbook Mormons and the Weight of Mormon History 134

Conclusion: Mormonism (Almost) Defanged 140

Notes 149

Bibliography 183

Acknowledgments 219

Index 223

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Spencer Fluhman has read widely and eclectically, probing the portraits of Mormons that emerged primarily from the pens of critics and sometimes from ham-fisted defenders. This book brilliantly situates these polemics in religious history, exploring a rich vein of argument about the nature of religion in nineteenth-century America.—Sarah Barringer Gordon, University of Pennsylvania Law School

Editorial Reviews

As Fluhman shows in marvelous detail, Mormonism was the great scandal of American nineteenth-century religion.—The New Yorker



General readers interested in American religious history will find this a worthwhile read.—Library Journal



Recommended. All levels/libraries.—Choice



The world needs more books like Fluhman's deft account of nineteenth-century anti-Mormon literature and the fascinating American dialogues about religion that anti-Mormonism produced. Interdisciplinarity and historicity thrive simultaneously in "A Peculiar People," and Fluhman's marvelously succinct book as much elevates him as a historian of synoptic breadth as it uplifts his subject.—Journal of Interdisciplinary History



An important work to the growing field of historical treatments of anti-Mormonism . . . I wholeheartedly recommend Fluhman's excellent volume.—Journal of Mormon History



A comprehensive history of anti-Mormon thought.—American Catholic Studies Newsletter



Fluhman has successfully captured the dynamic process of nineteenth-century religious otherness by crafting a wonderfully entertaining, illuminating, and concise book.—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society



Few books deserve to be longer. This is one of them. . . . A must-read for anyone seriously interested in the study of American religion.—Journal of American History



This excellent book deserves a wide audience and offers much to those interested in religion and identity, the nineteenth century, the American West, and intellectual and cultural history.—American Historical Review



Fluhman's book goes beyond the usual treatments of anti-Mormonism. . . . A stimulating discussion of the course of religion in America. This review can only hint at the richness of Fluhman's interpretive work.—The Annals of Iowa

From the Publisher

Modern Mormons work hard to promote themselves as Christians and über-Americans. But they have had to work against deeply entrenched prejudice and stereotypes that linger from the 19th century, as Fluhman (history, Brigham Young Univ.) ably demonstrates. Mormons themselves have accepted their public image as "a peculiar people"—separate from others, but not too separate or weird. Fluhman is interested in how others have viewed Mormons and molded their image. His 19th-century primary sources range from popular periodicals to various religious and political exposés. Anti-Mormonism has been both a religious phenomenon (misunderstanding Mormonism as a non-Christian religion) and a political one, particularly in the 19th century, as non-Mormons tried to limit the power of Mormon leaders over their followers. The controversy over polygamy was an important contributor to anti-Mormon sentiment, and Fluhman gives the subject its due here. Some of the great illustrations Fluhman includes may seem particularly outlandish to 21st-century sensibilities. VERDICT Though an academically oriented book, general readers interested in American religious history will find this a worthwhile read as well.—David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia

Library Journal