Please help me compile a list of “Must Reads” for LDS Women’s Studies. Please include books and essays. Links would be fantastic as well.
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Please help me compile a list of “Must Reads” for LDS Women’s Studies. Please include books and essays. Links would be fantastic as well.
Comments are closed.
Mormon Enigma (Tippetts and Avery)
Women’s Voices (Derr et al)
Women and Authority (Hanks, ed.)
A Mormon Mother (Annie Clark Tanner) (and what Ann said)
maybe one or two of Chieko Okazaki’s books too.
Love the Pink Accents!!!!
As a 36 year old man, I have no suggestions, but I love the idea. Looking forward to listening to whatever you come up with.
Camille Fronk Olson:
– Submit Yourselves…As Unto the Lord — audio link:
https://byub.org/sperry/?selectedYear=2002
– Mary, Martha, And Me
Have to plug my favorite pioneer diary: Mormon Midwife. Patty Sessions kept a daily diary for over four decades, and it’s a fascinating look into the lives of women during this time. Great genealogical resource as well as all the births she attends are annotated. But the real value is seeing her perspective on faith, Relief Society, women doing healings and speaking in tongues, polygamy, etc.
John,
I posed this question two months ago at T&S, and there were a number of helpful comments. You may want to look at the post, at https://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=3750 .
Sisters in Spirit, ed Lavina Anderson, etc
One of the best.
Wife No. 19 (JK).
I recommend the excellent essay by Shannon Webber that is posted at Zarahemla City Limits. It’s called “A Woman’s Unanswered Questions.”
And Strangers in Paradox by Paul and Margaret Toscano.
The greatest book I read in Mormon History is Patty Bartlett Sessions. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the book. According to Compton, Sessions (and her daughter Sylvia) were married to Joseph Smith. The journal starts shortly after and covers her pains and devotion to her beliefs. Her story re: polygamy is particularly gripping. Patty Sessions was a mid-wife that delivered literally thousands of children, made the best sherry in the Mormon territories and directly competed with the ZCMI.
An absolutely incredible woman and entirely practical. Too much stuff in there to point out. The nice thing is for me is that there is no commentary (except some great editorial notes) just a few lines a day for about 40 years.
A great book on recent Mormon feminism is Pedestals and Podiums by Martha Sonntag Bradley. She does an excelent job in articulating the ERA fight and it’s impact in Utah. A quick review of the sunstone stories surrounding the ERA would also be a good idea
I’ve long admired Heather P’s List
Here’s a couple of articles that came to my mind :
Riding Herd: A Conversation with Juanita Brooks.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 9.1 (Spring 1974): 11-33
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. “Lusterware.” in: A Thoughtful Faith: Essays on Belief by Mormon Scholars. Thomas G. Alexander … [et al.]; Compiled and edited by Philip L. Barlow. Centreville, Utah : Canon Press, c1986, p. 195-203.
#13
does anyone know if “lusterware” is available Online anywhere?
if so, please share.
Anything by Claudia Bushman.
Fawn McKay Brodie: A Biographer’s Life, by Newell G. Bringhurst (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1999).
Obviously, even though Brodie was excommunicated for her writings about Mormon history and came to be viewed by members of the LDS church as an “anti-Mormon,” her importance and impact as a Mormon woman and scholar can’t be overstated.
John: If you’re ever interested in interviewing Brodie’s biographer, he’s a good friend of mine and I’m sure I can set you up with him.
Personally, I think John should interview you, John Hamer! Maybe when your book comes out.
# 14.
Laurel Ulrich gave a Sunstone presentation which includes a good portionl of her essay. An MP3 may be downloaded from the Sunstone site (cost $1 ??) :
https://www.sunstoneonline.com/symposium/symp-mp3s.asp
Search for “SL86242, Pillars of my Faith Continued – All participants: Phil Barlow, Carlfred Broderick, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, James B Allen, Rex E Lee”
Ulrich’s remarks start about 8 minutes in.
John, when you do the interviews, do you usually read a lot of stuff ahead of time? I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be easier for you to just interview some of the authors of some of these books, rather than trying to make the five part series. Of course, you’d want to read the books as you went along– but you’ve set yourself a pretty huge task to get done anytime soon.
I wonder if you could get Martha Sonntag Bradley to talk about her book Pedestals and Podiums about the church and the ERA.
Also, maybe get Levi Peterson to talk about Juanita Brooks sometime. She deserves at least an entire session.
This falls outside of LDS women studies, but if you want to go a comparative route, Handmaidens of the Lord by Elaine Lawless is a good book about pentacostal women preachers and traditional religion.
This too falls outside the specifically LDS arena, but I thought “Gender, Power, & Promise: The Subject of the Bible’s First Story” was an interesting read. It was not written from/to LDS perspectives, so some of the doctrine is different (about Adam and Eve, God, O.T. generally). That notwithstanding, I really enjoyed this feminist reading of Genesis-Kings.
The Giant Joshua by Maurine Whipple is interesting– but it’s hard to get a copy of it. It was publishing in the late 1800’s. It is the story of a polygamist wife in Southern Utah. It is fiction, but includes many true stories from the time.
I second Cheiko Okazaki, also Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s essay “Lusterware”–Oh, I see it’s mentioned. I have a copy of it if anybody wants to contact me, I’ll copy it and send it to them.
gardnera@netutah.com
Is this a bad place to recommend Chad Kultgen’s The Average American Male?