Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years Among the Mormons
When evaluating online versions of print resources, reference librarians typically seek the "value added" are they getting something more for their money? The concept could well apply to collections of previously published essays, which are, more often than not, the junk heap of scholarship and usually of interest only to specialists. With Shipps's new collection, however, there is no doubt about added value. Widely acknowledged to be the premier non-Mormon scholar of Mormonism, Shipps (religion and history, Indiana Univ.-Purdue Univ. Indianapolis) has rethought every essay, contextualizing them in terms of historiography and her own work. The topics covered include the perception of Mormons over time, the faith's origins, and, most personally for Shipps, the case of being an "insider-outsider." When she adds sections, she strikes the exact balance between useful autobiography and scholarly revision. Academic libraries dealing with American history will want this title. David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania. Lib., PhiladelphiaCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.