Review: Konden Smith Hansen. Frontier Religion: Mormons and Americans, 1857–1907. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019.

Authors

Tammy Heise

Keywords

Frontier Thesis, Mormonism, American West, secularization, Protestantism

Abstract

Through a series of thought-provoking case studies, Konden Smith Hansen breathes new life into Frederick Jackson Turner’s famous (or, perhaps more accurately, now infamous) “Frontier Thesis” as a paradigm for examining Mormonism as a distinctly American religion. This historical survey revolves around a deft historiographical argument that the Frontier Thesis functioned and, in many respects, continues to function as a religion by defining American national identity and purpose not just for Mormons but for all Americans. Hansen’s attention to Turner’s theory serves to reopen an old frontier for historians of the American West, and by uncovering traditional and innovative forms of religion at its core, Hansen’s analysis encourages the critical re-examination of a powerful secular mythology that supported American colonial empire. This interpretive framework is particularly compelling because it allows Hansen to examine how Mormonism’s interactions with Protestantism shaped both traditions and to explain how their contentious engagement with one another contributed to complex processes of secularization within the United States as a whole. In this regard, Hansen’s study provides a useful model for future historical narratives that similarly seek to situate Mormon history within broader streams of American history as well as those that seek to explain religion’s role in the formation of the modern nation-state.

BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Heise, Tammy (2021) "Review: Konden Smith Hansen. Frontier Religion: Mormons and Americans, 1857–1907. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2019.," Mormon Studies Review: Vol. 8: No. 1, Article 21.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr2/vol8/iss1/21