“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
“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