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99-625: Before the founding of the JWHA, scholarship in the field of Mormon history had been developing. In the 1950s, scholars like Fawn Brodie , Juanita Brooks , Thomas O'Dea , and Leonard Arrington began applying academic methods to their religious history, giving rise to the New Mormon History . In this spirit, Robert Flanders, a professor at the RLDS-affiliated Graceland College, published Nauvoo: Kingdom on

198-625: A Y-DNA study was conducted of descendants of the Jefferson male line, Eston Hemings (the youngest son of Sally Hemings), the Carr nephews, and Thomas Woodson (whose family also claimed descent from Jefferson). It found that the Y-DNA of the Eston Hemings descendant matched the rare haplotype of the male Jefferson line. In addition, the tests conclusively found that there was no match between

297-403: A whooping cough epidemic convinced Brodie's mother to homeschool Fawn's sister, Flora, who was two years older, Fawn more than kept pace. Introduced to school in 1921, the six-year-old Fawn was advanced to the fourth grade; when she lost the school spelling bee to a twelve-year-old, "she cried and cried that this bright boy, twice her age, had spelled her down." At ten she had a poem printed in

396-677: A 38-year affair with a slave, then he could not free his slaves because once they were freed, Virginia law would force them from the state, unless he gained permission from the legislature for them to stay. He could continue his liaison with Hemings only if his slaves remained slaves. Two of the most prominent Jefferson biographers of the twentieth century, Dumas Malone and Merrill Peterson , had relied on Jefferson family testimony by two Randolph grandchildren, who named his Carr nephews as fathers. They discounted other evidence about this alleged sexual relationship, including by Madison Hemings in 1873, who identified Jefferson as his father and said he had

495-404: A biography of thirty three of the plural wives of Joseph Smith . A number of books produced by the publisher related to Mormon history have been considered controversial. Some authors view this as "quality liberal thinking on controversial LDS topics." Terryl Givens states that the publisher is "the main vehicle for publications that challenge the borders of Mormon orthodoxy." Signature Books

594-439: A board of directors composed of historians and business leaders: Eugene E. Campbell , Everett L. Cooley, David Lisonbee, D. Michael Quinn , Allen Dale Roberts, and Richard S. Van Wagoner ; and an editorial board consisting of Lavina Fielding Anderson , Maureen Ursenbach Beecher , Davis Bitton , Orson Scott Card , and Jay Parry. In 1980 Kenny and a few investors created Signature Books. In 1981 they published their first book,

693-470: A full account. The study of Jefferson had become a virtual career for several living historians. For instance, Dumas Malone was in the process of completing a six-volume biography of Jefferson, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975. Brodie decided to concentrate on a biography of “the private man”. She decided to build on several recently published articles on the historical controversy describing

792-675: A joint conference and have long offered joint memberships. Many MHA members are also JWHA members, or also members of the Utah State Historical Society , all three of which Jan Shipps called "Mormon to the core". Several presidents of the MHA have also been presidents of the JWHA, as well as one BYU religion professor. In addition to the MHA, the JWHA has also co-sponsored conferences with the Sunstone Educational Foundation and collaborated with

891-400: A lengthy critique: it praised the biography's "fine literary style" and denounced it as "a composite of all anti-Mormon books that have gone before". In the booklet, " No, Ma'am, That's Not History ", Hugh Nibley, a BYU professor and LDS historian, challenged Brodie. He asserted that she had cited sources supportive only of her conclusions while conveniently ignoring others. Brodie described

990-434: A less favorable account of Stevens, which Brodie had earlier criticized. Current not only urged W. W. Norton to publish a paperback edition of Brodie's book, but wrote a blurb praising the author for writing "more imaginatively" and "more resourcefully...than any other Stevens biographer". Nevertheless, Thaddeus Stevens was a commercial failure that sold fewer than fifteen hundred copies before going out of print in less than

1089-477: A long relationship with his mother. The relationship was first reported in 1802 by the journalist James T. Callender when Jefferson was President, after Callender failed to win an appointment by the president. Working from Winthrop Jordan 's Black on White (1968), Brodie also used Dumas Malone 's documentation of Jefferson's activities to correlate his stays at Monticello with the conception period of each of Sally Hemings' children, whose births he recorded in

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1188-403: A manuscript. But Dale Morgan told Brodie that Madeline Reeder McQuown, a close friend, had nearly completed a huge manuscript on Young. In fact, McQuown's biography was little more than a few rough drafts of early chapters, but Brodie was dissuaded and abandoned Young for Thomas Jefferson. By May 1968, Brodie was committed to writing the Jefferson biography. She understood that it could not be

1287-483: A million dollars in the early twenty-first century. Peterson concluded in 1998 that "[n]o book of the last quarter century has left a more indelible mark on the Jefferson image" than Brodie's An Intimate History . Literary reviews were generally positive, while historians were often critical of Brodie's speculations. Mainstream historians had long denied the possibility of Jefferson's relation with Sally Hemings, although such interracial liaisons were so common that by

1386-762: A new introduction for Sir Richard Francis Burton 's memoir, The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California (1862). Almost immediately she "was lost" to Burton, a man whom she described as "fascinating beyond belief". She soon planned a full biography. Like Brodie, Burton was an agnostic who was fascinated by religion and all things sexual. Brodie consulted with the psychoanalyst community and used her own free association to explore Burton's subconscious. For instance, she noted that immediately before and after Burton wrote about his mother, he talked "about cheating, decapitation, mutilations, smashings—all

1485-493: A newsletter irregularly (intended to be quarterly), which started in 1979, and has been joint publisher of Restoration Studies since 2009. Fawn Brodie Fawn McKay Brodie (September 15, 1915 – January 10, 1981) was an American biographer and one of the first female professors of history at UCLA , who is best known for Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History (1974), a work of psychobiography , and No Man Knows My History (1945), an early biography of Joseph Smith ,

1584-708: A part-time lecturer in history at the University of California, Los Angeles although she had not earned a Ph.D. (Both her bachelor's and master's degrees were in English.) As a woman, Brodie met some resistance from the large and overwhelmingly male history faculty, but her specialty in the current field of psychohistory aided her original appointment and her eventual promotion to full professor. Brodie taught both larger upper-division lectures in American history and small seminars on American political biography, preferring

1683-587: A printing press. In its continuing assault upon traditional Mormonism, Signature Books promotes with its recent and dubiously titled work, The Word of God , ...naturalistic assumptions...in dealing with Latter-day Saint belief." Signature Books asserts that several of the scholars who participated in New Approaches considered themselves active and participating members of the LDS faith. The FARMS reviewers, for their part, considered these authors to be opponents to

1782-487: A reported sexual relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings , a quadroon slave said to be the half-sister of his late wife. The topic was timely during a period of increased national interest in race, sex, and presidential hypocrisy. Brodie had personal reasons as well, having discovered that her husband had been conducting an extramarital affair. To Brodie, Jefferson's ambiguous posturings on slavery could be explained by his personal life. If he had been conducting

1881-626: A scholarly press. For example, Jan Shipps, a non-Mormon scholar, opened the first JWHA conference in 1973 with a paper entitled "The Prophet Puzzle", which was then picked up the next year by the Mormon History Association as the head article in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Mormon History . Years later the paper was again highlighted in the Essays on Mormonism Series published by Signature Books . In another example from

1980-475: A weakness of psychobiography because it was written by an author who disliked her subject. Sales of the book were disappointing, in part because of the reviews, and in part because memoirs by Nixon associates such as Henry Kissinger , John Ehrlichman , and John Dean had recently flooded the market. Perhaps Brodie's book was most influential in stimulating Oliver Stone to create his controversial 1995 movie Nixon . Signature Books Signature Books

2079-570: A year. In 1960 the Brodies spent a year in France, during which Fawn spent considerable energy researching and writing From Crossbow to H-Bomb , a co-authored paperback intended as a college text. It treated the influence of science on military technology. Bernard Brodie had signed the contract with Random House , but his wife did most of the research and writing. When the family returned to California, Alfred Knopf asked Brodie to edit and write

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2178-718: Is an American press specializing in subjects related to Utah , Mormonism , and Western Americana. The company was founded in 1980 by George D. Smith and Scott Kenney and is based in Salt Lake City , Utah. It is majority owned by the Smith-Pettit Foundation. In the late 1970s, Scott Kenney decided there needed to be a Mormon-related press that didn't have ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Among those present at Signature Books's inception were George D. Smith and Scott Kenney, assisted by

2277-499: Is challenged by history, with non-LDS providing a neutral space. Aside from the annual meeting and Journal , the JWHA is involved in several other activities. Scholarships are offered to students working on Mormon history, allowing them to attend and present to the conference. Awards are also presented by the JWHA for best books and articles in Mormon history. These are found alongside other awards in Mormon studies, such as those from

2376-447: Is often hostile to centrally important beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". In 2004, Signature Books posted on its web site a speech given by John Hatch, in which Hatch said, "After reading the (FARMS) reviews myself, it appears to me, and is my opinion, that FARMS is interested in making Mormonism's past appear as normal as possible to readers by attacking history books that discuss complex or difficult aspects of

2475-648: Is sometimes at odds with the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), an organization of Mormon scholars and apologists which promotes orthodox Mormon historical scholarship. Author Simon Southerton referred to Signature Books as "a perennial thorn in the side of FARMS." One example was Signature Book's publication of Grant H. Palmer 's book An Insider's View of Mormon Origins . The publication of this book immediately resulted in five negative book reviews by FARMS. Ron Priddis of Signature Books responded to these reviews by stating: "Is nothing beyond

2574-591: The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal ( JWHA Journal ) in 1981. It followed several Mormon studies journals founded in the 1960s and 1970s, including Courage and Restoration Studies by RLDS scholars. The Journal of Mormon History already provided a venue for historians, but there was room for another history journal in the wake of the New Mormon History and a proliferation of scholarly writing in

2673-468: The American Civil War . Like many previous Jefferson biographers, Brodie developed an intense affection for her protagonist. She claimed that in dreams, she and Jefferson became "man and wife". Bernard Brodie is supposed to have muttered, "God, I'm glad that man is out of the house." Fawn Brodie wondered where one could go after Jefferson, "but down". After her book was published, Brodie

2772-631: The Deseret News pamphlet as "a well-written, clever piece of Mormon propaganda", but she dismissed the more popular "No, Ma'am, That's Not History" as "a flippant and shallow piece". In May 1946, the LDS Church excommunicated Brodie. She never tried to regain her membership. Brodie once wrote to a friend that what she suffered from her disillusionment with Mormonism "had to do with the pain I caused my family. The disillusionment itself was...a liberating experience." Before No Man Knows My History

2871-454: The Journal publishes on all areas of Mormon history, drawing interest from LDS historians. Although founded by Community of Christ scholars, a significant proportion of the articles and reviews are written by LDS or non-Mormon contributors. The JWHA Journal is peer-reviewed with a reputation for strong scholarship and as a major publication in its field. It is compared to Mormon studies journals, like Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought ,

2970-710: The Journal of Mormon History , Sunstone , BYU Studies , the Utah Historical Quarterly , Exponent II and the RLDS journals Courage: A Journal of History, Thought and Action and Restoration Studies . Also compared are non-Mormon journals, like the Journal of the Early Republic , the Illinois Historical Journal , and Church History . The JWHA holds its annual meeting at a different historic site within Mormon history, on

3069-589: The Pentagon Papers , his operatives had burglarized the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis Fielding. Ellsberg was a close friend and former RAND associate of Bernard Brodie. Fielding was Fawn Brodie's long-time therapist. Brodie considered “Nixon the perpetrator of an assault on her privacy”. Although neither Bernard nor her publisher was enthusiastic about her choice, Brodie began to work on her new project. She resigned her professorship at UCLA in 1977 to devote herself to research, including, for

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3168-566: The University of California, Berkeley , and friends assumed they would marry. Her sister, Flora, had recently eloped with Jensen's brother, whom the McKays disliked. They encouraged Fawn to attend the University of Chicago rather than marry. She seemed to have had "growing doubts about marrying" Jensen. At the University of Chicago, where she earned a master's degree in 1936, she lost her faith in religion entirely. In 1975, she recalled, "It

3267-587: The University of Utah in 1934. There she began to question core Mormon beliefs, such as that the Native Americans had originated in ancient Palestine. After graduation at age nineteen, she returned to teach English at Weber College. In high school, Brodie had begun dating a classmate, Dilworth Jensen. They wrote to each other faithfully during Jensen's long absence on an LDS mission in Europe. In June 1935, they were both accepted for graduate studies at

3366-572: The 1960s and 1970s, including Flanders's book, might trouble church members after more than a century of official RLDS insistence that Smith was never involved. On direction from President Wallace B. Smith, Howard undertook a five-year study which was then edited and softened by RLDS leaders and historians in 1982. The First Presidency recommended it be presented at the JWHA, and later in the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal . But after some blowback

3465-800: The 1970s of their alleged descent from Eston Hemings, Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Brodie wrote a follow-up article about the Jefferson-Hemings grandchildren in 1976, entitled "Thomas Jefferson’s Unknown Grandchildren: A Study in Historical Silences", published in October 1976 in American Heritage magazine. Photographs and other documentary material they gave her have been donated to UCLA archives. In 1997 Annette Gordon-Reed published Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, in which she analyzed

3564-564: The 1970s. For many years the JWHA Journal was published annually in October (but is now semiannual) with scholarly papers, book reviews, and other features. It often contains papers from the JWHA conferences, and sometimes articles are later reprinted in Restoration Studies for a more general audience. Subscriptions are included with all JWHA memberships. While maintaining a special focus on Community of Christ history,

3663-573: The 1973 JWHA conference, Lawrence Foster, another non-Mormon, shared his research on polygamy with LDS Assistant Church Historian Davis Bitton. Bitton invited Foster to the LDS archives in Salt Lake City, Utah, leading to Foster's first published book. Since its founding, the JWHA has worked closely with its "sister organization", the Utah-based Mormon History Association. The two organizations have held

3762-525: The Brodies also undertook psychoanalysis, he for insomnia and she for chronic mild depression and sexual problems. (Bernard's employer, the RAND Corporation, paid most of the bills.) Brodie's interest in psychology during this period was heightened by family problems: her mother attempted suicide three times, the second by cutting herself with a Catholic crucifix, and the third (which succeeded) by setting herself on fire. The Stevens biography took

3861-662: The Brodies had moved for her husband's work, as well as at the headquarters of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Independence, Missouri. Eventually she returned to Utah, where she did research in the LDS Church Archives. She gained access to some highly restricted materials by claiming to be "Brother McKay's daughter", a subterfuge that made her feel "guilty as hell". Her pursuit of little-known documents eventually attracted

3960-746: The Carr line and the Hemings descendant. In January 2000, a research committee commissioned by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation , which operates Monticello , concluded that there was a high probability that Jefferson had been the father of Eston Hemings and likely of all Hemings children listed in the Monticello records. Since then the Foundation has revised exhibits and tour commentary to reflect Jefferson's paternity of all Hemings' children, and it has sponsored new research into

4059-648: The Farm Book. She discovered that Hemings never conceived when Jefferson was not at Monticello, during years when he was often away for months at a time. By 1971 Brodie had a $ 15,000 advance from her publisher and had presented a summary of her arguments at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians . The Jefferson biographer Merrill Peterson pilloried the paper. She also wrote an article for American Heritage of her work in progress, entitled "The Great Jefferson Taboo", about her conclusion that

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4158-528: The First Presidency denied involvement, saying the JWHA Journal did not speak for the church. Jan Shipps commented that "faith seemed endangered and help and comfort were needed". This became one of the "Church-shaking changes" that transformed the RLDS Church in the 1980s and 1990s, alongside the ordination of women, the new temple in Independence, and the break with father-son succession of

4257-603: The Hebrews , an earlier work by a contemporary clergyman Ethan Smith . Brodie asserts that at first Smith was a deliberate impostor; but at some point, in nearly untraceable steps, he became convinced that he really was a prophet, though never escaping "the memory of the conscious artifice" that created the Book of Mormon. Non-Mormon reviewers praised either the author's research, the excellence of her literary style, or both. Newsweek called Brodie's book "a definitive biography in

4356-782: The JWHA board of directors included LDS members, and Utah historians were invited to join. The first JWHA meeting was held in September 1973 in Nauvoo, Illinois. Founded as an independent group, not under the direction of any church, the JWHA would be free to explore historical controversies. Participants supported the New Mormon History , cultivating a lively tradition of exploring controversy in Mormonism. Some traditionalists and religious leaders warned that this approach could damage faith, while questioning and liberal Latter Day Saints found community and intellectual freedom. As John Whitmer,

4455-544: The JWHA. Throughout this time, Mormon historical scholarship was developing within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Utah. In 1965 the Mormon History Association was founded, which included RLDS historians amongst its officers. The periodicals BYU Studies (started 1959) and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (started 1966) published articles from MHA members. MHA founder Leonard Arrington

4554-470: The Jefferson–;Hemings relationship took place. In a change from its usual practice, the magazine included all her notes to show the sources of her conclusions. Brodie and her publisher understood that the biography would be controversial. An in-house editor at W. W. Norton was critical: "Doesn't [Brodie] know about making the theory fit the facts instead of trying to explain the facts to fit

4653-1121: The LDS Church History Department, and Brigham Young University institutions like the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute, the Charles Redd Center, the Religious Studies Center, and the BYU history department. Also compared are societies beyond Mormon studies, such as the American Historical Association, the American Academy of Religion, the Western History Association, and the Communal Studies Association. The JWHA began publishing

4752-470: The LDS Church was slow to condemn the work, even as the book went into a second printing. In 1946, The Improvement Era , an official periodical of the church, said that many of the book's citations were from "doubtful sources" and that the biography was "of no interest to Latter-day Saints who have correct knowledge of the history of Joseph Smith". The " Church News " section of the Deseret News had

4851-495: The LDS tradition. Signature management made an inquiry with the FARMS management, holding that such inferences were insulting and could be considered libelous. Signature then requested a retraction. Daniel C. Peterson , an LDS scholar and member of FARMS, published a response in various newspapers in Utah. In his response, he stated that "Signature Books and George D. Smith seem...to have a clear (if unadmitted) agenda, an agenda that

4950-399: The LDS youth periodical, The Juvenile Instructor ; at fourteen she was salutatorian of Weber High School. Although Brodie grew to maturity in a rigorously religious environment that included strict Sabbatarianism and evening prayers on her knees, her mother was a closet skeptic who thought the LDS Church was a "wonderful social order" but who doubted its dogma. According to Brodie, in

5049-816: The MHA and the Utah State Historical Society, the Dialogue Foundation, and the Evans Biography Award. The JWHA hosts a scholarly lecture at its Spring Banquet, held in Independence, Missouri, before each triennial World Conference of the Community of Christ, during a time when church members and leaders are gathered to the city. In 2005, the JWHA founded John Whitmer Books, a publishing imprint for scholarly titles in Mormon Studies. The JWHA also publishes

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5148-463: The Mississippi in 1965. The book presented controversies, like Joseph Smith's polygamy, that were in contrast to faith-promoting teachings of the RLDS Church, and brought a backlash from some RLDS members. Then Richard P. Howard, another proponent of the New Mormon History, was appointed Church Historian in 1966, further upsetting some traditional believers. Howard opened the church archives and

5247-649: The Mormon Missouri Frontier Foundation, including an archaeological dig at Hawn's Mill in 2002. The JWHA and MHA fostered an interfaith dialogue that helped thaw relations between the LDS and RLDS. Each organization published research and reviewed books by members of both faiths. This complimented the trust developed in the 1960s between Richard Howard, the RLDS Church Historian, and Robert Matthews, an LDS researcher of Joseph Smith's Bible translation manuscript, held in

5346-432: The New Mormon History to found the JWHA, serving as its president in 1981. He continued to present and publish influential articles, while also serving in high church offices. As church president, he presented a paper to the JWHA in 1999, as a response to an earlier critique of the RLDS Church, where he stated that his past historical research had influenced the positions he took as church president. In 2006, after resigning

5445-615: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles . Brodie's paternal uncle, David O. McKay , was an LDS Church apostle when Brodie was born and later became the church's ninth president . Despite the prominence of her family in the church, they lived in genteel poverty, their property burdened by unpayable debt. The young Fawn was perpetually embarrassed that their house did not have indoor plumbing. Brodie early demonstrated precociousness. At three she memorized and recited lengthy poems. When

5544-593: The RLDS collections. From this goodwill, the RLDS Church approved Matthews' research for publication in the official LDS Edition of the Bible in 1979. While it is most often compared to the MHA, the role of the JWHA has also been compared to other organizations within the historical community. This includes the Sunstone Education Foundation, the Dialogue Foundation, Signature Books, the Utah State Historical Society (and other Utah history groups),

5643-447: The attention of her uncle, David O. McKay . After a "painful, acrimonious encounter" with her uncle, Brodie promised never again to consult materials in the church's archives. Brodie's research was enlarged by other students of Mormonism, most notably Dale L. Morgan , who became a lifelong friend, mentor, and sounding board. Brodie completed her biography of Joseph Smith in 1944, and it was published in 1945 by Alfred A. Knopf, when she

5742-516: The better part of a decade to complete. When Brodie published the Stevens book in 1959, it enjoyed virtually unanimous praise from critics. Major historians of the Civil War and Reconstruction era, including David Herbert Donald and C. Vann Woodward , praised the biography. Donald called Brodie's psychoanalysis of Stevens "a tour de force". Most gracious was Richard N. Current , who had written

5841-514: The biography as "the best book about the Mormons so far published". DeVoto, who believed Joseph Smith was "paranoid", said that Brodie had not provided adequate psychological explanations for Smith's behavior. Brodie also came to believe that a thorough psychological analysis of Smith was essential and that she "hadn't gone far enough in this direction". Although No Man Knows My History criticized many foundational Mormon beliefs about Joseph Smith,

5940-444: The contradictory evidence about Smith's early life" and as a work that presented conjecture as fact. Her best-selling psychobiography of Thomas Jefferson , published in 1974, was the first modern examination of evidence that Jefferson had taken his slave Sally Hemings as a concubine and fathered children by her. Brodie concluded he had done so, a conclusion supported by a 1998 DNA analysis and current scholarly consensus. Fawn McKay

6039-562: The diaries of Mormon leaders such as Joseph Smith , William Clayton , Heber C. Kimball , Wilford Woodruff , L. John Nuttall , Anthon H. Lund , John Henry Smith , Rudger Clawson , B. H. Roberts and Reed Smoot . Signature has also published noted studies of well-known early Mormon theologians such as James E. Talmage , B. H. Roberts , Orson Pratt , Parley P. Pratt , Brigham Young , John Widtsoe , and award-winning biographies of significant early Mormons such as, Joseph Smith , Sidney Rigdon , Wilford Woodruff , John Taylor , as well as

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6138-407: The finest sense of the word", and Time praised the author for her "skill and scholarship and admirable detachment". Other reviews were less positive. Brodie was especially annoyed by the review of novelist Vardis Fisher , who accused her of stating "as indisputable facts what can only be regarded as conjectures supported by doubtful evidence". Bernard DeVoto wrote a mixed review, but he praised

6237-411: The first tenured female professors of history at UCLA, she is best known for her five biographies, four of which incorporate insights from Freudian psychology . Brodie's depiction of Joseph Smith in 1945 as a fraudulent "genius of improvisation" has been described as both a "beautifully written biography ... the work of a mature scholar [that] represented the first genuine effort to come to grips with

6336-404: The first Church Historian in 1831, was remembered for his controversial history of early Mormonism and falling out with church leaders, the name evoked taking the side of the historian when in conflict with the institution. Through the JWHA, RLDS members confronted Joseph Smith's historical link with Mormon polygamy, a defining issue for the RLDS Church. Church leaders worried that publications in

6435-529: The first time, in oral history collections. Brodie conducted 150 interviews. She tried unsuccessfully to interview Henry Kissinger —whom she knew on a first-name basis—and Nixon for what she described in a letter to him as “a compassionate and accurate study”. (Nixon did not reply.) Although she could find no evidence, Brodie began to think that he had engaged in a homosexual relationship with his good friend Bebe Rebozo . Her psychoanalyst friends tried to warn her off this topic. In November 1977, Bernard Brodie

6534-564: The founder of the Latter Day Saint movement . Raised in Utah in a respected, if impoverished, family who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Fawn McKay drifted away from Mormonism during her years of graduate work at the University of Chicago and married Bernard Brodie , an academic who became a national defense expert; they had three children. Although Fawn Brodie eventually became one of

6633-413: The historiography and noted the bias of historians in assessing conflicting accounts by descendants of the Jefferson family and the Hemings family, as well as evidence that they overlooked. She also noted Malone's data, which established that Jefferson was at Monticello during the conception period for each of Sally Heming's children. To try to resolve the renewed controversy with modern techniques, in 1998

6732-623: The interracial society of Monticello and Charlottesville. Since 2000, most academics, including biographers such as Joseph Ellis , have agreed with the new consensus. Other historians, including those associated with the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, founded after the DNA study, continue to disagree. Brodie considered a range of subjects for a new biography. Brigham Young was a clear field, but she decided not to “return to old ground”. Richard Nixon had resigned

6831-414: The last full weekend in September. Professional and independent historians from the Community of Christ, and elsewhere, present their research to an attendance of around 100. Scholars are introduced to each other and to new research. As many attendees are believers at different levels of faith, Jan Shipps observed that JWHA and MHA conferences can sometimes serve as quasi-religious support groups when faith

6930-441: The late 1930s, while her father headed Mormon mission activities in German-speaking Europe, her mother became a "thoroughgoing heretic" while accompanying him there. From 1930 to 1932, Brodie attended Weber College , a two-year institution in Ogden, then owned by the LDS Church, where she became an accomplished public speaker and participated in intercollegiate debate. She completed a bachelor's degree in English literature at

7029-400: The late eighteenth century, visitors remarked on the numerous white slaves in Virginia and the Upper South. " The Richmond Examiner on September 25, 1802, in a rare admission, stated that “thousands” of mulatto children were then being born in the South." Mary Chesnut and Fanny Kemble , educated women of the planter elite, also wrote about many interracial families in the era shortly before

7128-557: The latter. Thomas Jefferson was a natural subject for Brodie's fourth biography. One of her courses focused on the United States from 1800 to 1830, and her seminar in political biography could serve as an appropriate forum for a work-in-progress. Throughout this period, Brodie was attracted to Mormon studies and was importuned by several publishers to write a biography of Brigham Young . The LDS entrepreneur, O.C. Tanner (1904–1993), offered Brodie $ 10,000 in advance to produce

7227-399: The mid-twentieth century. At first Brodie was amused at how much psychoanalysis had "become a religion" to its practitioners, but she later became a committed devotee of psychoanalytic theory. Brodie made a number of acquaintances among psychoanalysts who helped her evaluate Thaddeus Stevens, notably Ralph R. Greenson, with whom she developed a close personal and professional relationship. Both

7326-544: The official historian of the RLDS Church, and organized the John Whitmer Historical Association. Some had organizational expertise from their service as MHA officers. Most of these were already members of the MHA, and the JWHA was founded with the intent to continue the collaboration and warm relations with the MHA. Richard Howard won an MHA award in 1970 and was interested in exchanging ideas between LDS and RLDS scholars. From its beginning

7425-418: The presidency shortly after she had finished Jefferson, and Brodie had spoken formally to both students and others about the former president. As a liberal Democrat, Brodie had developed a “repellent fascination" with Nixon, a man whom she called “a rattlesnake”, a “plain damn liar”, and a "shabby, pathetic felon". Although Brodie thought Nixon was an imposter like Joseph Smith , she did not believe him to be

7524-493: The presidency, McMurray was able to speak frankly about Joseph Smith's polygamy at the JWHA, which had so troubled the church in the 1970s and 1980s. The JWHA is considered an important professional venue within the Latter Day Saint historical community. Historians from different backgrounds connect and share research, and develop scholarship. JWHA is often a venue for research which is later published in book form by

7623-428: The presidency. The church moved from its Mormon heritage toward liberal Protestantism, adopting the name Community of Christ in 2001. W. Grant McMurray, church president from 1996 to 2004, demonstrates the influence of the JWHA on the Community of Christ. Working for the church as a researcher and later as the archivist, McMurray advanced into church leadership. During this time McMurray joined other RLDS supporters of

7722-482: The prospect of rebuilding a reputation rather than, as in her Joseph Smith biography, tearing one down. Stevens as a champion of black people was a timely interest as the Civil Rights Movement increased in intensity. Research materials were available at Yale University, where Bernard Brodie was employed. Fawn Brodie also wondered how Stevens had been affected psychologically by having a club foot . In

7821-516: The reach of sarcasm by FARMS polemicists ?" At one point in early 1991, FARMS claims that Signature Books threatened a lawsuit over several reviews of its books that appeared in the Review on Books of the Book of Mormon . The item which initiated the lawsuit threat was a book review published by Stephen E. Robinson , on Signature-published The Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture , in which Robinson blasted, "Korihor's back, and this time he's got

7920-828: The satire Saintspeak by Orson Scott Card . Several of Signature Books' publications have won awards from the Association for Mormon Letters , the John Whitmer Historical Association , the Mormon History Association , the Mountain West Center for Western Studies, and the Utah Center for the Book. Signature Books produces from eight to ten books a year, which deal with topics of western and Mormon history, fiction, essay, humor and art. Among these are

8019-679: The stories and metaphors are violent, negative, and hostile". The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton was published in May 1967 and was chosen as a featured selection by both the Literary Guild Book Club and the History Book Club . Reviews were again generally positive. The New York Times Book Review promoted it as an "[e]xcellent biography of a bizarre man who had a bizarre wife—and life". The publication of three acclaimed biographies allowed Brodie to become

8118-536: The theory? It's pretty fascinating, like working out a detective story, but she doesn't play fair." Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History was published in February 1974, and it was the main spring selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club . Brodie tried to ensure that none of the three foremost Jefferson scholars, Dumas Malone , Merrill Peterson , and Julian Boyd , would review the book. Brodie

8217-410: The view of students of historiography such as Ernst Breisach, all biographers are to some degree psychohistorians , and any biography that refused to examine motives, character traits, and the depth of personality would be flat and uninteresting. Brodie became interested in applying the theories of professional psychoanalysts to the study of historical personalities, a subject especially popular during

8316-544: The wedding in an LDS chapel, but of the McKays, only Fawn's mother attended. None of Brodie's family did. Having found temporary employment at the Harper Library of the University of Chicago, Brodie began researching the origins of the Book of Mormon . By mid-1939, she confided to her uncle, Dean R. Brimhall (another ex-Mormon), that she intended to write a scholarly biography of Joseph Smith. Progress toward that goal

8415-528: The “charming imposter the Mormon leader was". Her interest in the former president had a personal basis as well. One of her sons had nearly been drafted in 1969 shortly after Nixon had won election on the promise to end the Vietnam War . (At the last minute, sympathetic physicians had reclassified Bruce Brodie as unfit for military service on the basis of his allergies.) Also, when Nixon had sought information to discredit Daniel Ellsberg , who had leaked

8514-643: Was "enormously fulfilling". Eventually the Brodies had two boys and a girl. Still, Brodie was not content to be without a writing project for long. After some desultory investigation of other possibilities, she settled on a biography of Thaddeus Stevens , a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania during the Civil War and the Reconstruction era . Brodie believed that previous historians had unduly vilified Stevens, and she relished

8613-488: Was alienated from both his family and his family's religion. A bright graduate student in international relations, he eventually became a noted expert in military strategy during the Cold War era. The McKays were horrified at their daughter's impending marriage; Dilworth Jensen felt betrayed. David O. McKay went to Chicago to warn his niece of the family's strong objections. Out of consideration for her mother, Fawn scheduled

8712-402: Was appointed LDS Church Historian in 1972, forming a new Church Historical Department which was active in the historical community. Despite positive experiences, RLDS historians in the midwest found MHA participation difficult due to the distance to Utah. So on September 18, 1972, fifteen like-minded RLDS historians met together in Independence, Missouri, in the living room of Richard P. Howard,

8811-478: Was contacted by some Eston Hemings Jefferson descendants who recognized his name from her account. His descendants had married white, and this generation appeared to be white. They discovered that their fathers in the 1940s had decided that, to protect their children from racial discrimination associated with descent from Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, they would tell the children they were descended from Jefferson's uncle. All these Jefferson descendants learned in

8910-416: Was diagnosed with a serious cancer, and Fawn Brodie suspended her research on Nixon: “That son of a bitch can wait.” She nursed her husband until his death a year later. Afterward, she struggled with “a depression from which she would never really emerge”. Under the circumstances, Nixon's biography seemed “like a total obscenity”. While hiking at a family reunion in 1980, Brodie became unusually tired. She

9009-496: Was interviewed on NBC's Today Show , and the book quickly "became a topic of comment in elite social-literary circles", as well as among political people. The biography was an immediate commercial success; it was on the New York Times bestseller list for thirteen weeks. Jefferson sold 80,000 copies in hardback and 270,000 copies in paperback, and netted Brodie $ 350,000 in royalties—adjusted for inflation, more than

9108-408: Was like taking a hot coat off in the summertime. The sense of liberation I had at the University of Chicago was exhilarating. I felt very quickly that I could not go back to the old life, and I never did." She continued to write to Jensen until shortly before she married Bernard Brodie on her graduation day, August 28, 1936. Brodie was a native of Chicago, the son of Latvian Jewish immigrants, who

9207-469: Was optimistic about historical challenges. This progressive approach to Mormon studies inspired Courage: A Journal of History, Thought and Action , founded in 1970 by several faculty from Graceland College . Contrasting with conservative RLDS publishing, Courage ventured a fresh look at RLDS issues and historical problems, often diverging from traditional interpretations. The independent journal closed in 1973, by which time several of its team had started

9306-523: Was published in late 1981 and received reviews less enthusiastic than for any of her earlier books. Writing in The New Republic , Godfrey Hodgson questioned both her psychoanalytic approach and her motives: "[W]e are in danger of having the insights of psychotherapy used as a tool for character destruction, certainly for libel, potentially for revenge." According to J. Philipp Rosenberg, Brodie's study of Richard Nixon 's early career demonstrated

9405-490: Was published, Brodie sought to comfort her parents, "You brought us all up to revere the truth, which is the noblest ideal a parent can instill in his children, and the fact that we come out on somewhat different roads certainly is no reflection on you." Brodie's mother and three sisters were enthusiastic about the book, but Thomas McKay refused to read it. Fawn Brodie genuinely enjoyed her roles as wife and mother, believing that rearing children, especially when they were small,

9504-496: Was shortly diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer , although she had never smoked. Between chemotherapy treatments, she pushed ahead to complete the Nixon study. Her three children and a daughter-in-law provided moral and editorial support. Knowing that she could never complete a full biography, Brodie ended the manuscript with Nixon's pre-presidential years, lending it an unfinished quality. Richard Nixon: The Shaping of His Character

9603-606: Was slowed by the birth of the Brodies' first child and by three rapid moves, a consequence of her husband's search for a permanent position. In 1943, Fawn Brodie was encouraged enough by her progress to enter her 300-page draft in a contest for the Alfred A. Knopf literary fellowship. In May, her application was judged the best of the 44 entries. Brodie continued her research at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where

9702-560: Was the second of five children of Thomas E. McKay and Fawn Brimhall. Born in Ogden, Utah , she grew up in Huntsville , about ten miles (16 km) east. Both her parents descended from families influential in early Mormonism. Her maternal grandfather, George H. Brimhall , was president of Brigham Young University . Her father, Thomas Evans McKay, was a bishop, president of the LDS Church's Swiss-Austrian Mission , and an Assistant to

9801-435: Was thirty years old. Its title, No Man Knows My History , alludes to a comment Joseph Smith made in a speech shortly before his death in 1844. Brodie presents the young Joseph as a lazy, good-natured, extroverted, and unsuccessful treasure seeker. In an attempt to improve his family's fortunes, he developed the notion of golden plates and then the concept of a religious novel, the Book of Mormon, based in part on View of

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