*Cross posted from Mormon History Guy.
By Brian C. Hales
On June 5, 2014, I downloaded the Kindle version of Alex Beam’s American Crucifixion and reviewed Chapter 5, “Polygamy and Its Discontents.” I immediately identified a few weaknesses of the chapter including the predominant use of secondary sources, quoting of problematic evidences apparently without checking their reliability, ignoring of historical data that contradicts his position, promotion of narrow and often extreme interpretations of available documents, and going beyond the evidence in constructing conclusions.
Two days later in San Antonio, Texas, at the Mormon History Association’s annual meeting, Mr. Beam presented a thoughtful essay and then fielded questions from the audience. As near as I can recall, I took the opportunity to pose the following question: “I’m not trying to put you on the spot but about three-fourths of your sources are secondary. Were you concerned you might be criticized for this?” and I again added: “I’m not trying to put you on the spot.” At this, the audience laughed, and Alex was gracious in acknowledging he was aware of my books, but at that point in the research process, he was not inclined to read another three books on the subject because he was satisfied that he had sufficiently researched the topic. In Alex’s defense, my three volumes (Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: History and Theology with over 1500 pages) were released about the time he had probably just finished his final draft. Few authors would hold up such a project in order to integrate the contents of a new book that dealt with the subject of only one of the chapters. [Read more…] about A Review of Alex Beam’s Treatment of Polygamy