Frontier Religion

Konden Smith Hansen is lecturer of religious studies at the University of Arizona. His work has been published in the Journal of Mormon History, Reading Religion, and Mormons and American Popular Culture.

"This work serves many audiences. This book could be used in undergraduate or graduate courses in American history (and the frontier), religion and politics, gender, and American religious history, to name a few. It will also appeal to general non-specialist readers, even those unfamiliar with the subject matter, inspiring curiosity and interest. Smith Hansen's comprehensive bibliography also encourages further reading on the fascinating intersections between religion, the frontier, and the state in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." --Nova Religio "Frontier Religion is a strong, original addition not only to the literature of late nineteenth-century Mormon history and its post-1890 transition period, but to broader religious-based meditations on the place of religion in frontier and postfrontier American governance. Highly recommended." --Journal of Mormon History "Konden Smith Hansen demonstrates not just Mormonism's interactions with Protestantism, but how both traditions, as well as the relationships between them, were connected to larger trajectories in the history of American religion and the growing secularization of the state. The monograph is a model for future studies that seek to connect Mormon history with larger narratives in American religious history and American history more generally." --James Bennett, associate provost and associate professor of religious studies, Santa Clara University "Though many have claimed that Mormonism is the 'American religion, ' the history is much more complicated. Konden Smith Hansen persuasively argues that in order to understand how that idea came to be, we need to first understand how the definitions of 'American, ' 'religion, ' and even 'Mormonism' transformed at the turn of the twentieth century. In this provocative study, Smith examines together a series of case studies that are traditionally kept separate, and in doing so demonstrates how Mormonism evolved from a kingdom to a denomination, and America from a religious empire to a secular nation-state." --Benjamin E. Park, assistant professor of history, Sam Houston State University