Matthew Bowman’s new book, The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith, was conceived and birthed in a little under three months.
The 352-page volume arrived on shelves in late January, in time to capture the energy and interest of the so-called "Mormon moment," with Latter-day Saint Mitt Romney in the heat of a presidential race. Since its publication, first-time author Bowman has been a ubiquitous presence in TV, newspaper and online stories about the Utah-based faith. Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw called Bowman’s book "essential reading for anyone interested in 2012 and beyond."
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Meet the author
Matthew Bowman, author of The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith, will sign books and speak at several Utah venues in the coming week:
March 10, 7 p.m. » The King’s English Bookshop, 1511 S. 1500 East, Salt Lake City
March 15, 1 p.m. » Lecture, LDS Church History Library, 15 E. North Temple, Salt Lake City
March 15, 6 p.m. » Barnes & Noble, 500 S. and 500 West, Bountiful
March 17, 7 p.m. » Lecture, University of Utah Union building
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Bowman, a Mormon, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Utah and a doctorate from Georgetown University, with a dissertation on New York evangelicals. His work on evangelicalism and Mormonism has been published in Religion and American Culture, Journal of the Early Republic and The New Republic. He teaches American religious religion at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. He is also an editor at Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and was a four-time winner of the Mormon History Association’s Juanita Brooks Award for Best Graduate Paper.
The Salt Lake Tribune interviewed Bowman, who will speak at several Utah locations in coming days, in Salt Lake City and via email.
How did the book come to be?
On June 22, 2011, Jon Meacham [former Newsweek editor] called me. That was a bit of a surprise. He said, "I believe there’s a 50/50 chance we’ll have a Mormon president next year. I feel the time is right for an accessible, narrative history of Mormonism, and I want you to write it." He had asked [Joseph Smith biographer] Richard Bushman first, and Bushman turned him down. Then Richard gave him my name. I had just published a piece in The New Republic. Jon asked me to do it. I called him back a couple of days later and said yes. He said, "We’d like to have the manuscript by Labor Day and the book on the shelves by primary season."
I said, "Oh dear. I don’t know if I can do that." He offered me two extra weeks. I gave it to them on September 14, three months later. [Random House] wanted 70,000 words. I gave them 110,000, and they didn’t cut anything.
What did Meacham want it to be?
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He didn’t have a focused idea; just a history of the church. I would like to have written a history of Mormonism with Joseph Smith as a minor character. He did not encourage that. He said Joseph Smith is popular, Joseph Smith is sexy, and it would sell more books.
What did you want it to be?
The conventional Mormon history devotes half [of the book] to Joseph Smith, a third to Brigham Young and the last chapter to all the rest. I wanted to synthesize all the vast material written about Mormonism in the past 30 years. I wanted to produce a narrative of the 20th century, which we might be able to hang other work on. I want to explain how Mormons entered the 20th century, how they left it and what changed in between. Of course, Joseph is in there, too.
What was the hardest part to write?
It was in Chapter 6, where I struggled with the Progressive Era, just after World War I. Mormons share a lot with progressives, both in terms of ideology and behavior. They share a radically optimistic view of human nature, of human possibility, of our capacity to organize and solve humanity’s problems. They also share a commitment to organization and bureaucracy, and faith that it will accomplish what we want it to accomplish. Once I figured out the argument, the rest fell into place.
How has the book been received?
A couple of reviews have been terrible. One took me to task for not treating the idea of Mormonism as a cult. Academics don’t use the word "cult." What I have learned from the reception is that, in fact, most Americans get what they know about the Mormons from Jon Krakauer [Under the Banner of Heaven] and [HBO’s] "Big Love," more than anything else. That is dispiriting. Other than that, there have been a lot of positive reviews as well, which is gratifying.
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