It’s fashionable in some (usually politically and theologically leftish) Mormon, fringe-Mormon, and ex-Mormon circles to despise Brigham Young. He’s routinely denounced as a misogynist and a racist, as if — even if those epithets were accurate — that would count as a more or less exhaustive description of the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
And, even among some still-believing Latter-day Saints, there’s occasional deep discomfort with him.
So I would like to recommend two books that, in my judgment, will serve to counter the hostile caricatures of him that I encounter with some frequency these days:
- Hugh Nibley, Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints (also available for free online, here)
- Eugene England, Brother Brigham
I think it’s helpful to note, in this case, that both Hugh Nibley and Eugene England were men of the political Left. (I knew them both.)
And, while we’re at it, Hugh Nibley’s Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass: The Art of Telling Tales about Joseph Smith and Brigham Young is also quite relevant. Moreover, it’s often uproariously funny.
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https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2019/08/brother-brigham.html
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