Paul M.
Edwards
The Irony of Mormon History BY P A U L M . E D W A R D S
I
N AN EARLY Dialogue there appears a remarkable article by Richard L. Bushman called "Faithful History."1 It seems too appropriate to be coincidental that in the same issue—though separated by what the second author will call the "divided payoff"—is an article by Samuel W. Taylor called "How to Read a Mormon Scholar." The juxtaposition of these two articles and their content is characteristic of the topic I wish to address, which is the idea of faithful history and some of the complexities and ironies arising when Mormons and historians open Pandora's box of mixed loyalties. Dr. Edwards is chairman of the Division of Social Sciences at Graceland College, Lamoni, Iowa. This essay was first presented as the luncheon address at the Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Utah State Historical Society, September 8, 1973, in Salt Lake City. 1 Richard L. Bushman, "Faithful History," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon 4 (Winter 1969), 11. It is unfortunate that Professor Bushman has not published his " T h e Book of Mormon and the American Revolution," which he presented at the Yale of the Mormon History Association in October 1972. Its availability would give us base for further dialogue.
Thought, address, meeting a wider
