Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet – John G. Turner – 4 Stars

Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet – John G. Turner – 4 Stars

Title: Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet

Author: John G. Turner

Publisher: Belknap Press

Year: Hardcover 2012, Paperback 2014

Rating:  4 Stars

Price and Purchasing Options: This book got fairly good distribution for its category, but probably not enough to expect to see it regularly at second hand options like Deseret Industries or eBay.  You will see it occasionally at Deseret Book, and it is readily available on Amazon for around $15-20.  It is worth it to get new.  It is also available on Audible if you prefer to listen to it.

Review: This is my favorite book on the complex person of Brigham Young!  It is in the same vein as Bushman’s Joseph Smith Rough Stone Rolling.  It contains the most recent research, relatively unbiased considerations, and doesn’t shy away from the complexity of human life and real personalities.

This book covers the breadth of Young’s life, from his youth, his conversion to Mormonism, his years in the early church, and the challenging roles of maintaining a large religious organization in the midst of conflict and internal challenges, as well as through keeping religious relevance when stability begins to settle.

With that being said, I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone.  It is by far the best book on Young, but I generally wouldn’t recommend people focus on studying Young in depth as a topic unless already interested and curious.  For someone who is intrigued by this unique person, this is the book.  If you are not interested, concerned, or intrigued go ahead and skip it.  Young can be confusing and complicated unless already properly primed.

Being a more academic book, and definitely not a “coffee table” book for casual reading, this book requires an open mind with a comfortable foundation of church history.  In this light, it can be enlightening and answer questions – without this, however, it can create questions.

A few of my favorite impression and take-a-ways on Young were the following:

Brigham was the only prophet never to be trained, and he was required to perform something that no one else had (or has since) been asked to do.  Joseph had the comfort of setting precedence, and being trained by that confidence and the Godhead in various forms; and all prophets since had spent time as an apostle watching, learning, and developing as prophets themselves.

Brigham on the other hand was thrust into leadership – having the keys of the kingdom with him and the twelve – maybe not fully understanding the full ramifications at the time.  He was also asked to keep a body of believers together in impossible circumstances, with challenges to authority from public Mormon figures, and was required to become more of a stick than a carrot to keep the body together.

A unique impression that also came through the book seems to be the unique circumstances to his conversion in the church and his later conversion to polygamy.  Young took quite a bit of time to convert to the church.  Although, he was introduced to it first, he read the Book of Mormon.  Thought about it, passed it to others to read and ask their opinions – when they converted, he still wondered, pondered, re-read, and then repassed.  Throughout this process, he might have been the first to see Mormonism, but out of his family, he was the last to actually be baptized.  This is interesting, because it highlights the thoughtful consideration that Young seemed to give to everything in his life.  He wasn’t a man to jump in naively on anything!

Flash forward to his introduction to polygamy: he is first introduced and invited to practice it and his immediate response was horror.  He leaves to his house, speaks to his wife, and almost entirely out of character (as detailed above) he comes back the next day, and humbly accepts it is of God.

There was something about that latter experience that made someone so hesitant and thoughtful about every action, accept such a hard principle so quickly.  It reminded me of the LDS Temple Ceremony.  Forgive me if I’m a little out of place…  When those attending the temple take a step back and look from the outside in (or out of context) its weird, and doesn’t necessarily make sense.  However, in reality, in those moments, regardless of our mental inability to make sense of it – there is a feeling that confirms beyond our mortal mind that it is right, sound, and eternal.  From there we start to learn line upon line – but it reminds me that there are times and places and principles that are so sacred, that it doesn’t need to make sense, as much as feel confirmed by a higher power to be true in the moment.  This is how I feel about Brigham’s odd acceptance of polygamy.  His introduction seemed so out of place, and his pivot towards acceptance so uncharacteristic for him and his wife – that there had to be something more to the experience than we can comprehend out of context.

With all of that being said, I really enjoyed this book.  It is not for everyone.  It is about Brigham which is arguably one of the more complicated and complex figures in church history.  He was a prophet, but much like Joseph he wasn’t perfect.  It was asked to do something no one else had done, and no one else would do sense: keep a body of believers together and prevent the church from scattering to the four winds.  He was exactly what the Church needed at the time, but that does not come without consequences of personality, a little pride, and some harsh realities.

I loved this book – but I only recommend it to those who are able to read through church history without being tossed to and fro by it.

Suggestions:  I would recommend picking it up.  This is one of the few good LDS books that are also available on audible – and it is a fun listen to as well.

I hope you have enjoyed this review, and I encourage you to follow this blog as I update more reviews in the coming days, weeks, months, etc.  Please feel free to also follow my YouTube page – however, I enjoy writing more than being on camera!

Review #36

Tags: 4 Stars, Historical Biography, Church History, Brigham Young (topic), John G. Turner, Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet, LDS Book Review, Ryan Daley