Edited by Mark Ashurst-McGee, Senior Historian, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Robin Scott Jensen, Associate Managing Historian and Project Archivist, Joseph Smith Papers Project, and Sharalyn D. Howcroft, Archivist and Document Specialist, Joseph Smith Papers Project

Mark Ashurst-McGee is the Senior Historian and Senior Research and Review Editor for the Joseph Smith Papers Project, where he specializes in document analysis and documentary editing methodology. He is a coeditor of several volumes of the Joseph Smith Papers and is the author of several articles on Joseph Smith and early Mormon history.

Robin Scott Jensen is Associate Managing Historian and the Project Archivist for the Joseph Smith Papers Project. Jensen is a coeditor of the volumes in the Revelations and Translations series of the Joseph Smith Papers and is the author of several articles on Joseph Smith and early Mormon history.

Sharalyn D. Howcroft is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists and an archivist for the Joseph Smith Papers Project specializing in handwriting identification and custodial history.

CONTRIBUTORS

Mark Ashurst-McGee is a senior historian in the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Senior Research and Review Editor for the Joseph Smith Papers Project. He is the co-editor of several volumes in The Joseph Smith Papers. His writings have appeared in several scholarly journals, including The Journal of Mormon History and Brigham Young University Studies Quarterly.

Ronald O. Barney is past senior archivist and historian in the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was an associate editor of the Joseph Smith Papers and has served as the Executive Director of the Mormon History Association and as editor of Mormon Historical Studies. His three books are One Side by Himself: The Life and Times of Lewis Barney, 1808-1894; The Mormon Vanguard Brigade of 1847: Norton Jacob's Record; and Mack Watkins: A Biography.

Richard Lyman Bushman is Gouverneur Morris Professor of History Emeritus at Columbia University, and more recently Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University. His several books include From Puritan to Yankee: Character and the Social Order in Connecticut, 1690-1765; The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities; and Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.

Jeffrey G. Cannon is a doctoral student in world Christianity at the University of Edinburgh where his research explores how churches have used different media, particularly photographs, to influence attitudes toward Africa. Previously, he was an archivist for the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His writings have appeared in several scholarly journals, including Brigham Young University Studies Quarterly.

David W. Grua is a historian and documentary editor for the Joseph Smith Papers. He is the author of Surviving Wounded Knee: The Lakotas and the Politics of Memory. His writings have appeared in several scholarly journals, including Journal of Mormon History and Brigham Young University Studies Quarterly.

Grant Hardy is Professor of History and Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He is the author of several books, including Worlds of Bronze and Bamboo: Sima Qian's Conquest of History; The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China; and Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide. He is the editor of The Book of Mormon: A Reader's Edition and co-editor of the first volume of the Oxford History of Historical Writing.

Andrew H. Hedges is Associate Professor of Church History and Doctrine at Brigham Young University. He is the co-editor of the second and third volumes of the Journals series of the Joseph Smith Papers. His writings have appeared in several scholarly journals, including Journal of Mormon History and Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society.

Sharalyn D. Howcroft is an archivist for The Joseph Smith Papers specializing in handwriting identification and custodial history. She has an MLIS with an archival studies concentration from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists.

Robin Scott Jensen is an associate managing historian and the project archivist for the Joseph Smith Papers. He is the co-editor of the first three volumes in the Revelations and Translations series of the Joseph Smith Papers. His writings have appeared in several scholarly journals, including Journal of Mormon History and Brigham Young University Studies Quarterly.

Jennifer Reeder is the nineteenth-century women's history specialist at the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She has edited documentary collections of Mormon women's writings and her writings have appeared in several scholarly journals, including Journal of Mormon History.

Alex D. Smith is a historian with the Joseph Smith Papers. He is the co-editor of two volumes of the Journals series and three volumes of the Documents series of the Joseph Smith Papers. His writings have appeared in several scholarly journals, including Journal of Mormon History.

William V. Smith is emeritus professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University. His writings have appeared in several scholarly journals, including Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

Harry S. Stout is the Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Religious History at Yale University. He is the author and editor of several books, including Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War; The New England Soul; The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism. He is general editor of both The Works of Jonathan Edwards and the Religion in America series for Oxford University Press.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University. She is the author of several books, including A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diaries, 1735-1812; The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth; and A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870.

Grant Underwood is Professor of History at Brigham Young University. He is the author of The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism; and a co-editor of three volumes in the Documents series of the Joseph Smith Papers.

Thomas A. Wayment is Professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University. He is the author, with Lincoln Blumell, of Christian Oxyrhynchus: Texts, Documents, and Sources.

"Textual criticism, as practiced in this book, sheds important light on the understanding of revelation in early Mormonism...This volume offers a fine collection of essays on early Mormon history and the concept of revelation as understood by early church members." - Hans Gerald Hödl, University of Vienna, Religious Studies Review

"Foundational Texts of Mormonism offers one of the first pathways from The Joseph Smith Papers to scholars and students of early Mormonism ... It offers a lens into historical practices, everyday life of early Mormonism, and the material culture that defined private, public, and religious life." - Michael Hubbard MacKay, Mormon Studies Review

"Foundational Texts of Mormonism presents for the scholar and the casual reader added context and understanding to the various receptions of these texts over time. The individual essays are valuable to any study of the texts they examine while also being fine examples of several different types of textual criticism in their own right." - Gerrit van Dyk, BYU Studies Quarterly

"This book, then, is more than a discussion of the 'foundational sources' of a new religious movement. It shows us that movements self-creation through its production of documents ... After seeing the similar care and diligence these authors have shown to the documents they study, it will be hard for any historian to avoid scrutinizing the handwriting or watermarks or folds that mark any page that comes before them in an archive." - Matthew Bowman, Reading Religion

"In short, this volume is a must-have for historians of Mormonism. I cant think of many edited collections in the field more worthy of that title... It will also work as a great primer for historians of other topics who need an introduction to the field. Indeed, any scholar interested in early Mormonism will need to consult at least one chapter in this volume. It is an instant classic." - Benjamin E. Park, Professor Park's Blog

"In recent years, the Joseph Smith Papers Project has published and annotated the documents created by Mormonism's founding prophet. This path-breaking book is part of the payoff. In it, scholars examine several of the most significant textsthe Book of Mormon, revelations, letters, and journalsto reconstruct the religious world in which Joseph Smith and his followers lived." - John G. Turner, Professor of Religious Studies at George Mason University, author of The Mormon Jesus: A Biography

"Mormonism's unique canon and voluminous historiography can be daunting. The record is simply too thick and opaque for most to gain access. This collection provides a path through the thicket with well-chosen, authoritative sources and expert analysis. It is an especially useful introduction to the Joseph Smith Papers. The general and scholarly reader will be benefited by this singular contribution to Mormon Studies." - Kathleen Flake, Richard Lyman Bushman Professor of Mormon Studies, University of Virginia Department of Religious Studies

"Historical sources have their own histories. This is especially true of the primary texts that shape our fundamental understanding of the foundations of Mormonism. This collection of essays by experts in the field is an invaluable resource for scholars working on early Mormonism or religion in nineteenth-century America, orienting them to the complex histories behind the sources they employ to write their own histories." - Patrick Q. Mason, Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies, Claremont Graduate University