Scholar
for Arrington Lecture to look at future study of the
Utah War
August 27, 2008 | The 2008 Leonard J. Arrington Mormon
History Lecture at Utah State University will feature
a noted independent historian, William P. MacKinnon,
who will take a look at future study of the Utah War.
The lecture, held each fall, is presented by Special
Collections and Archives in the Merrill-Cazier Library
at USU in conjunction with the Leonard J. Arrington
Foundation. MacKinnon's lecture, "Predicting the
Past: The Utah War's 21st-Century Future," will
be at 7 p.m. Sept. 25 at the Logan LDS Tabernacle, 50
N. Main St.
The lecture is free and open to all. Utah is approaching
the conclusion of the sesquicentennial commemoration
of the Utah War of 1857-1858, and the question arises
about whether there is anything more to be said on the
subject, MacKinnon said.
"There has been such an outpouring of books,
articles, conference papers, films, novels, plays, television
documentaries, cemetery ceremonies, debates, re-enactments
and even commemorative posters designed by elementary
school students about the war and its greatest atrocity
-- the Mountain Meadows massacre -- that some historians
and other aficionados are showing signs of battle fatigue,"
he said.
MacKinnon said the purpose of his lecture is to probe
the future direction of Utah War studies.
"What more needs to be done and what reasonably
is likely to unfold?" MacKinnon rhetorically asked.
MacKinnon is a management consultant, independent historian
and community volunteer. He is an alumnus of the Mount
Hermon (Massachusetts) School and earned a bachelor's
degree magna cum laude from Yale University.
He is a past chairman of the Yale Library Associates
and an associate fellow of Yale's Davenport College.
In 1962, he earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate
School of Business Administration. He is a resident
of Montecita, Calif.
USU's Merrill-Cazier Library, host of the lecture,
houses the personal and historical collection of the
late Leonard J. Arrington, a renowned scholar of the
American West. As part of that gift to the university,
Arrington requested that the historical collection also
become the focus for an annual lecture on an aspect
of Mormon history. Honoring that request, the Leonard
J. Arrington Mormon History Lecture Series was established
in 1995.
During a long and distinguished career, Arrington was
a professor of economics at USU, church historian for
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and
director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for
Church History. He was the author of many books and
articles.
For information about the Arrington Lecture, contact
Brad Cole at Utah State University, (435) 797-8268.
MS
MS |
