Joe
Added to listPolitical Philosophywith 19 books.
Untethered from external guidance, the world after the enlightenment spins its wheels but fails to gain any moral traction. Its reasoning is solipsistic and more about soothing the self rather than exercising it to grow in virtue. MacIntyre performs a surgical dissection that opens up this world, unveiling just how little is there.
Untethered from external guidance, the world after the enlightenment spins its wheels but fails to gain any moral traction. Its reasoning is solipsistic and more about soothing the self rather than exercising it to grow in virtue. MacIntyre performs a surgical dissection that opens up this world, unveiling just how little is there.
Fascinating as historiography. Tenured at BYU, the author (Ph.D, Univ of Wisconsin) evinces meticulously-footnoted skill at taking a secular “Mormon Studies” approach toward thematic threads of anti-Mormon reaction.
He describes the movement with studied evenhandedness until his chapter on its politics. At Nauvoo, Smith acts only defensively, and the catastrophe is triggered by internal dissent over the polygamy revelation. Generalizations warranting multiple citations in earlier chapters are simply claimed. Smith appears politically unagentic, the author omitting, for instance, mention of his candidacy for the U.S. presidency or his contested rhetoric in securing the settlement’s municipal charter from Illinois. The book is not an apologia or a hagiography of mormonism, but an academic contribution from a historian well aware of the world beyond it.
it is telling that its weakest portion lies in the failure to enter into critical reckoning with Smith himself and in the political claims he made as the singular voice of his religion.
Fascinating as historiography. Tenured at BYU, the author (Ph.D, Univ of Wisconsin) evinces meticulously-footnoted skill at taking a secular “Mormon Studies” approach toward thematic threads of anti-Mormon reaction.
He describes the movement with studied evenhandedness until his chapter on its politics. At Nauvoo, Smith acts only defensively, and the catastrophe is triggered by internal dissent over the polygamy revelation. Generalizations warranting multiple citations in earlier chapters are simply claimed. Smith appears politically unagentic, the author omitting, for instance, mention of his candidacy for the U.S. presidency or his contested rhetoric in securing the settlement’s municipal charter from Illinois. The book is not an apologia or a hagiography of mormonism, but an academic contribution from a historian well aware of the world beyond it.
it is telling that its weakest portion lies in the failure to enter into critical reckoning with Smith himself and in the political claims he made as the singular voice of his religion.
Added to listHistory - Texaswith 5 books.
Added to listGraphic Novelswith 10 books.
It is the magisterial biography, but so unkind to its reader.
It is the magisterial biography, but so unkind to its reader.
Added to listHistory - American - Lutheranwith 9 books.
American toe-dip in the recent river of Scandinavian scholarship on the Hauge movement and pietism's broader impact. Published from a dissertation, does a fine job at surfacing primary sources, but the overall language is a bit clippy. Unfortunate titling.
American toe-dip in the recent river of Scandinavian scholarship on the Hauge movement and pietism's broader impact. Published from a dissertation, does a fine job at surfacing primary sources, but the overall language is a bit clippy. Unfortunate titling.
