From Above and Below: The Mormon Embrace of Revolution, 1840–1940

by Craig Livingston 2014 Best International Book Award, Mormon History Association “In this engaging study, ... Livingston demonstrates how Latter-day Saints interpreted revolutions through their unique theology and millennialism.” — Matthew J. Grow “With profound research in Mormon sources and in academic studies about various social revolutions and political upheavals, Livingston provides a nuanced examination of this little-known dimension of LDS thought .” — D. Michael Quinn   Available in ebook for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Google Play, and Apple. Also available through Amazon. Book Description: For the first century of their church’s existence, Mormon observers of international events studied and cheered global revolutions as a religious exercise. As believers in divine-human co-agency, many prominent Mormons saw global revolutions as providential precursors to the imminent establishment of the terrestrial kingdom of God. French Revolutionary symbolism, socialist critiques of industrialism, American Indian nationalism, and Wilsonian internationalism all became the raw materials of Mormon millennial theologies which were sometimes barely distinguishable from secular utopianism. Many Mormon thinkers accepted secular revolutionary arguments that the old world order needed to be destroyed, not merely reformed, to clear the way for the new.      In From Above and Below, author Craig Livingston tells the story of Mormon commentary on global revolutions from the European revolutions of 1848 to the collapse of Mormon faith in progress in the 1930s when revolutionary communist and fascist regimes exposed themselves as violent and repressive. As the Church bureaucratized and assimilated to mainstream American and capitalist values, Mormons became champions of the conservative view of political and social development for which they are known today. The first Mormon converts in Mexico and France, both political radicals, would scarcely recognize the arch-conservative twenty-first century Church. Comprehensive Table of Contents: Show/Hide . Acknowledgments Introduction Mapping Parallel RevolutionsRevolutionary Reminders of the Mormon PastDefinitionsSourcesSynopsis 1. Secular and Religious Revolutionary Concepts Martyrs of RevolutionThe French RevolutionRevolution, Utopia, and the MillenniumThe Revolutionary Idea EvolvesReligion and the Revolutionary MindTime Befriends the BelieverThe MillenniumGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich HegelTheo-Democracy and Totalitarian DemocracyToward the Kingdom of God 2. Mormon Observers of the 1848 European Revolutions The Ecumenical BannerCourse of the Revolutions, 1848–1851The American ResponseMormon Sources and Mormon ObserversExcitement for Republican GovernmentGodly Republicanism and Jewish EmancipationRevolution Promotes Missionary WorkThe Script of Social RevolutionThe Bitterness of ReactionTwo Futures 3. Mormon Revolutionary Symbolism BorrowingsMasonry and Illuminism as Revolutionary OrganizationalGeometry and NumbersSymbols and IconsMormon Print, Proclamations, and FictionRed and Black, Festivals, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and WindThe Flag of the Kingdom of GodFrom Models of Revolution to the Mountains of Utah 4. A Mormon Critique of Industrialization, 1860–1920 Resistance to the MainstreamPreamble to Full-blown IndustrialismMormon Sympathy with Socialist GoalsMormon Communalism in the Revolutionary ContextProperty, Factories, and Observer Philosophies of ChangeTaut Expectations 5. France and Russia in “The Throes Of Revolution,” 1870–71 and 1905 IntroductionThe Franco-Prussian War (1870) and the Paris Commune (1871)The 1905 Russian RevolutionFaith in Revolution Untarnished 6. Mormon Observers Respond to Colonialism From Colonial Revolt, HopeThe New ImperialismIrelandBoer WarSpanish-American War and Philippine InsurrectionChinaJapanPersia and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey)IndiaOne-WorldismFrom the Center to the Periphery 7. The Mexican Revolution and the Idea of an Indian Nation, 1910–17 Reprise of 1848Mormon Point Men in MexicoMormon Economic Elitism in Mexico, 1886–1910The Madero RevolutionExpulsion and Recalibration, 1912–13A Messianic Revolution?Carranza and the ConstitutionalistsAn Indian Nation Born in Revolution 8. Post-Revolutionary Mexico, 1920–30 Extension of Revolutionary ActionThe New MexicoMormons in Mexico after 1917The Church-State Controversy in Mexico and Civil ReligionExpanding the Revolution: The Ivins-Hunt Exchange, 1926The Cristero Rebellion, 1927–29Rey L. Pratt: The Revolution Must ContinueJ. Reuben Clark, the Surprise RevolutionistSatisfaction with the Revolution 9. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 Reordering the WorldMormon Observers Applaud the Czar’s OverthrowThe League of Nations as a Revolution in World AffairsLeague Defeated—Observers Recalibrate and Take Refuge in TimeLatter-day Saint Praise of the Post-revolutionary Soviet UnionThe Will to Believe 10. The Golden Age of Revolution in South America, 1925–31 Missionary Work or Socio-religious Radicalism?Consecration of South American RevolutionDepression and the South American Predicament, 1930–31Mormon Observers Revel in Revolutionary JubilationAn Exercise in Hope 11. Fade-Out and Conclusion A Shifting ResponseReprise: The Great Depression and the Sensation of RevolutionFade-out: History, Time, and Revolution Lose Canonical AuthorityConclusion Coda Biographical Register of Mormon ObserversBibliography AbbreviationsHistorical Newspapers and PeriodicalsPublished and Unpublished Sources Index     Praise for From Above and Below: “In this engaging study, Craig Livingston examines Mormon responses to political revolutions across the globe from the 1840s to the 1930s. Latter-day Saints saw utopian possibilities in revolutions from the European tumults of 1848 to the Mexican Revolution. Highlighting the often radical anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist rhetoric of Mormon leaders, Livingston demonstrates how Latter-day Saints interpreted revolutions through their unique theology and millennialism.” — Matthew J. Grow, author of "Liberty to the Downtrodden”: Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer “Craig Livingston’s landmark book demonstrates how 21st-century Mormonism's arch-conservatism was preceded by its pro-revolutionary worldview that was dominant from the 1830s to the 1930s. Shown by current opinion-polling to be the most politically conservative religious group in the United States, contemporary Mormons are unaware that leaders of the LDS Church once praised radical liberalism and violent revolutionaries. By this pre-1936 Mormon view, ‘The people would reduce privilege and exploitation in the crucible of revolution, then reforge society in a spiritual union of peace’ before the Coming of Christ and His Millennium. With profound research in Mormon sources and in academic studies about various social revolutions and political upheavals, Livingston provides a nuanced examination of this little-known dimension of LDS thought which tenuously balanced pro-revolutionary enthusiasms with anti-mob sentiments.” — D. Michael Quinn, author of Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark About the Author: Craig Livingston is Professor of History at Lone Star College-Montgomery in The Woodlands, Texas. Previous to academia, he served as an infantry officer in the US Army. More Information: Pages: 452ISBN: 978-1-58958-621-5 (paperback)Published June 2013