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.

26 Comments

  1. Ann May 9, 2007 at 9:26 pm

    Mormon Enigma (Tippetts and Avery)
    Women’s Voices (Derr et al)
    Women and Authority (Hanks, ed.)

  2. Paula May 9, 2007 at 9:38 pm

    A Mormon Mother (Annie Clark Tanner) (and what Ann said)

  3. Paula May 9, 2007 at 10:00 pm

    maybe one or two of Chieko Okazaki’s books too.

  4. HAL May 9, 2007 at 10:05 pm

    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.

  5. Darren May 9, 2007 at 10:41 pm

    Camille Fronk Olson:
    – Submit Yourselves…As Unto the Lord — audio link:
    https://byub.org/sperry/?selectedYear=2002

    – Mary, Martha, And Me

  6. ElGuapo May 9, 2007 at 11:21 pm

    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.

  7. Kaimi May 9, 2007 at 11:39 pm

    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 .

  8. Dallas Robbins May 10, 2007 at 6:38 am

    Sisters in Spirit, ed Lavina Anderson, etc
    One of the best.

  9. Equality May 10, 2007 at 10:06 am

    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.

  10. Ricercar May 10, 2007 at 10:27 am

    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.

  11. angrymormonliberal May 10, 2007 at 11:19 am

    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

  12. fMhLisa May 10, 2007 at 9:06 pm

    I’ve long admired Heather P’s List

  13. Anne Hutchinson May 11, 2007 at 12:49 am

    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.

  14. Russell May 11, 2007 at 9:18 am

    #13
    does anyone know if “lusterware” is available Online anywhere?
    if so, please share.

  15. Chris Rusch May 11, 2007 at 12:13 pm

    Anything by Claudia Bushman.

  16. John Hamer May 11, 2007 at 1:32 pm

    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.

  17. Equality May 11, 2007 at 2:36 pm

    Personally, I think John should interview you, John Hamer! Maybe when your book comes out.

  18. Anne Hutchinson May 11, 2007 at 3:22 pm

    # 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.

  19. Paula May 11, 2007 at 3:22 pm

    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.

  20. Michelle May 11, 2007 at 3:55 pm

    I wonder if you could get Martha Sonntag Bradley to talk about her book Pedestals and Podiums about the church and the ERA.

  21. Paula May 11, 2007 at 5:52 pm

    Also, maybe get Levi Peterson to talk about Juanita Brooks sometime. She deserves at least an entire session.

  22. Glenn May 11, 2007 at 10:19 pm

    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.

  23. Mary Ann May 13, 2007 at 10:47 am

    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.

  24. Emily Bates May 21, 2007 at 6:42 pm

    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.

  25. annegb May 30, 2007 at 3:31 pm

    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

  26. Equality May 30, 2007 at 4:04 pm

    Is this a bad place to recommend Chad Kultgen’s The Average American Male?

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