Convicting the Mormons

“Johnson’s analysis provides a useful framework for understanding the relationship between high-profile trials and media and popular cultural representations, making this book useful for legal studies and scholars of the American nineteenth-century and Mormon studies. . . . [A] welcome addition to LDS scholarship.”—Journal of the American Academy of Religion

“An engaging account of the narrative people in the nineteenth century created about the Mountain Meadows Massacre and how this narrative both drew on and influenced people’s perceptions of Mormons . . . . Anyone interested in Mormon history, nineteenth century U.S. history, and religious history, will find this book to be excellent reading.”—Civil War Monitor

“The Mountain Meadow Massacre is one of the most controversial events in Mormon history, and Janiece Johnson skillfully uses it as a tool to understand how Americans understood Mormonism in the second half of the nineteenth century.”—Arkansas Historical Quarterly

“[Convicting the Mormons] explores how [the Mountain Meadows Massacre] was mobilized in arguments about the church as a whole outside of Utah. . . . Johnson asks why it is that the massacre has secured for itself such a compelling place in American memory today, and her answers are more thorough than any other work to date.”—Nova Religio

“Johnson’s overarching achievement is showing that the actual degree of Mormon complicity matters much less than what Americans have come to believe about the event and how they have used it to further exclusionary aims. . . . [T]his book is a testament to scholarship that shows how groups use religious intolerance to define national and religious purity.”—Reading Religion

“A well-informed and detailed look into the way American culture and prejudice can prevent us from achieving justice. . . . Johnson’s revelations provide a valuable lesson for any historian studying violence and popular memory, but this work will be especially useful for research and classes addressing Utah history, Mormon history, nineteenth-century politics and culture, and the history of law and the press.”—Western Historical Quarterly

“Johnson’s scholarship is clearly an important contribution to both Mormon history in general and massacre scholarship in particular. . . . [I]nvaluable.”—Utah Historical Quarterly

“Heavy-hitting. . . . Convicting the Mormons is a fascinating exploration of how the public image of Latter-day Saints has been deeply affected by the massacre. . . . [Johnson’s] openness and depth of research is remarkable and presents a clear and thorough account of one of the most shameful events in Latter-day Saint history.”—Dialogue

“Johnson’s argument relies on an effective analysis of popular literature, newspapers, and court records. The book reveals the lengths that nineteenth-century Americans went to justify their hatred of the ‘other.’”—Nevada Historical Society

“[A] thought-provoking book about the social history of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and early Mormon history.”—Religious Studies Review