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 Revolutions Revolutionary Reminders of the Mormon Past Definitions Sources Synopsis 1. Secular and Religious Revolutionary Concepts Martyrs of Revolution The French Revolution Revolution, Utopia, and the Millennium The Revolutionary Idea Evolves Religion and the Revolutionary Mind Time Befriends the Believer The Millennium Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Theo-Democracy and Totalitarian Democracy Toward the Kingdom of God 2. Mormon Observers of the 1848 European Revolutions The Ecumenical Banner Course of the Revolutions, 1848–1851 The American Response Mormon Sources and Mormon Observers Excitement for Republican Government Godly Republicanism and Jewish Emancipation Revolution Promotes Missionary Work The Script of Social Revolution The Bitterness of Reaction Two Futures 3. Mormon Revolutionary Symbolism Borrowings Masonry and Illuminism as Revolutionary Organizational Geometry and Numbers Symbols and Icons Mormon Print, Proclamations, and Fiction Red and Black, Festivals, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Wind The Flag of the Kingdom of God From Models of Revolution to the Mountains of Utah 4. A Mormon Critique of Industrialization, 1860–1920 Resistance to the Mainstream Preamble to Full-blown Industrialism Mormon Sympathy with Socialist Goals Mormon Communalism in the Revolutionary Context Property, Factories, and Observer Philosophies of Change Taut Expectations 5. France and Russia in “The Throes Of Revolution,” 1870–71 and 1905 Introduction The Franco-Prussian War (1870) and the Paris Commune (1871) The 1905 Russian Revolution Faith in Revolution Untarnished 6. Mormon Observers Respond to Colonialism From Colonial Revolt, Hope The New Imperialism Ireland Boer War Spanish-American War and Philippine Insurrection China Japan Persia and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) India One-Worldism From the Center to the Periphery 7. The Mexican Revolution and the Idea of an Indian Nation, 1910–17 Reprise of 1848 Mormon Point Men in Mexico Mormon Economic Elitism in Mexico, 1886–1910 The Madero Revolution Expulsion and Recalibration, 1912–13 A Messianic Revolution? Carranza and the Constitutionalists An Indian Nation Born in Revolution 8. Post-Revolutionary Mexico, 1920–30 Extension of Revolutionary Action The New Mexico Mormons in Mexico after 1917 The Church-State Controversy in Mexico and Civil Religion Expanding the Revolution: The Ivins-Hunt Exchange, 1926 The Cristero Rebellion, 1927–29 Rey L. Pratt: The Revolution Must Continue J. Reuben Clark, the Surprise Revolutionist Satisfaction with the Revolution 9. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 Reordering the World Mormon Observers Applaud the Czar’s Overthrow The League of Nations as a Revolution in World Affairs League Defeated—Observers Recalibrate and Take Refuge in Time Latter-day Saint Praise of the Post-revolutionary Soviet Union The Will to Believe 10. The Golden Age of Revolution in South America, 1925–31 Missionary Work or Socio-religious Radicalism? Consecration of South American Revolution Depression and the South American Predicament, 1930–31 Mormon Observers Revel in Revolutionary Jubilation An Exercise in Hope 11. Fade-Out and Conclusion A Shifting Response Reprise: The Great Depression and the Sensation of Revolution Fade-out: History, Time, and Revolution Lose Canonical Authority Conclusion Coda Biographical Register of Mormon Observers Bibliography Abbreviations Historical Newspapers and Periodicals Published 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: 452 ISBN: 978-1-58958-621-5 (paperback) Published June 2013