Greetings to all my fellow history nerds!

January felt like an entire year long but also passed by so quickly. Funny how time works in the current regime. Anyway, I recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Utah, which included an informal gathering of the history geek squad at Benchmark Books. When I arranged the event, I hoped we could at least get a handful of people. To my delight and surprise, we got around sixty. It was a blast. I was so thrilled to meet so many of you, and honored that you're interested in my form of nerdiness. I hope to do other events in the future.

Below you'll find the typical links, videos, and odds and ends, concluding with my thoughts on the phenomenal new Ann Lee movie.

NEWS/NOTES/ANNOUNCEMENTS

• My next YouTube live discussion is going to be this Wednesday, 2/4, at 7pm. I've come to love these monthly chats, barring mic problems and my daughter knocking over the camera. For this month's theme, we are doing a deep dive on polygamy. This will help culminate a series of videos I've been doing, a series on D&C 132, as well as a recent video on John Turner's 1886 revelation. So please join in the fun and bring your questions concerning Mormon polygamy's origins, development, attempted end, and legacies. But if we have time and interest, I'll also be willing to tackle any and all questions you raise. Make sure you're subscribed to my YouTube channel so you don't miss it.
• The reason I was in Utah last week was to attend the Utah Historical Society's annual awards gala. It was held at the Hill Aerospace Museum, a phenomenal venue that I'd never visited before. Something about being surrounded by historic bombers and wartime airfare added gravitas to the proceedings. I was very fortunate for my book American Zion to be named the finalist for their Best Book in Utah History, but it was wonderful to be there to celebrate all the other worthy winners. That includes Paul Reeve, Christopher Rich, and Lajean Carruth, whose This Abominable Slavery won the Best Book Award.
• The latest issue of Journal of Mormon History has a roundtable on the recently-available John Taylor 1886 revelation on polygamy. Members of Mormon History Association can access it at this link. If you're not an MHA member, you really should fix that. The roundtable has an essay from yours truly, in which I look at how J. Reuben Clark responded to the revelation's existence in 1933, mere days after issuing a statement denying its validity. And congrats to the two people who won the issue giveaway with their comments on the relevant youtube video!

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

• ​Joseph Smith’s Most Controversial Revelation Explained (1/19): This is the first of a three-part series on Joseph Smith's revelation on polygamy, later canonized as D&C 132. In Part One, I investigate the documents origins, creation, and immediate reception.
• ​Was Joseph Smith's Polygamy Revelation Meant for the Whole Church? (1/26): This is the second video in the series, and focuses on the long path from preserving the revelation in the 1840s to its publication in the 1850s and its canonization in the 1870s. At not point was the document's status solid, and it was due to a set of personalities and events that made the revelation what it is today.
• ​Why Polygamy Still Shapes Modern Mormon Doctrine (available for channel members now; available to everyone tomorrow): The third and final part of my series on D&C 132. After talking about a particularly tenuous moment when the revelation could have been de-canonized, I trace how LDS leaders and the institution re-interpreted the text to mean monogamous rather than polygamous marriages. The video also highlights the work of women who have called out how the ghost of polygamy still haunts the church.
• ​The LDS Church's Complicated History With Martin Luther King, Jr. (1/21): Why was Utah the last state to recognize MLK Day? Part of it had to do with the legacy of LDS leaders speaking out against the Civil Rights icon. This video traces how various Mormon figures responded to MLK and the movement he represented.
• ​Mormon Studies Scholars and Mormon Fundamentalists Discuss John Taylor's 1886 Revelation on Polygamy (1/23): Last June, the LDS Church made available a document that they had long denied existed--John Taylor's 1886 revelation that proclaimed polygamy would never go away. We've now had six months to digest the document and its significance. In this video, I talk with Dr. Christopher Jones, editor of Journal of Mormon History, who put together a roundtable on the topic. I also talk with Moroni Jessop, a member of the fundamentalist community.
• ​The Hidden Politics of Apostolic Appointments (1/28): What goes into the choice of new apostles? This video offers a crash course of the original Quorum of the Twelve, the long history of dynastic connections within the Quorum, and the latest set of issues and questions. Then there's lots of speculation in the comments about who will be the next addition.
• ​Mormonism & the Law (1/30): The legal scholar Nathan Oman has a new book, Living Oracles: Law and the Latter-day Saint Tradition, that makes a sophisticated and substantial analysis of how Mormonism has intersected with the law. This video is a long and deliciously nerdy conversation with Professor Oman.

SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEOS

• The Essential Yet Non-Existent Mormon Constitutional Convention of 1849: TikTok & Instagram​
• Remembering George Washington the President & George Washington the Enslaver: TikTok & Instagram​
• Joseph Smith's Revelation on Polygamy Was Never a Sure Thing to Be Added to LDS Scripture: TikTok & Instagram​
• The Political & Legal Context for The Canonization of D&C 132: TikTok & Instagram​
• The Historical Work Performed in the New Movie, The Testament of Ann Lee: TikTok & Instagram​

ODDS & ENDS

• I was skeptical going into the movie The Testament of Ann Lee. Filmmakers have a checkered history when it comes to religion, especially religious figures who claimed prophetic powers. It's very easy to depict them as irrational and unsympathetic. How would someone like Ann Lee, whose calls for celibacy and the impending apocalypse, fare? I was very pleased to be wrong--the movie is fantastic. It's probably the best film of its kind that I've seen in a long time. The film does not hide from the more skeptical interpretation of contextual origins of the Shaker faith, but it still captures their deep and substantial devotion.
• This year, the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War, is going to feature lots of books on the imperial crisis and its many legacies. Here's one new one that I really enjoyed: Thomas Richards's The Unfinished Business of 1776: Why the American Revolution Never Ended (The New Press). It's a collection of stories of people who tried to carry the Revolution's promises to new contexts and generations, including one chapter on the Mormons' attempt to create Zion in the West. I may say more about the book at some point, but for now I'll just recommend it.

And that's all I have for this week. I hope to see many of you at Wednesday's live discussion!

Benjamin Park, historian and nerd

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