Marvin S. Hill

Marvin Sidney Hill (born August 28, 1928) is a retired professor of American history at Brigham Young University (BYU) and a historian of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Biography

Hill completed his Master of Arts in history at BYU in 1955.^[1] He received a Ph.D. in American Intellectual History from the University of Chicago in 1968, studying under Martin E. Marty^[2] and writing his dissertation on Christian Primitivism and Mormonism.^[3] Hill attended the University of Chicago at the same time as Dallin H. Oaks, and their mutual interest in the murder of Mormon founder Joseph Smith in Illinois led to a ten-year research effort. Together they published the book Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith in 1975, when they were both working at BYU, Hill as a professor of history and Oaks as the university president.^[4] The book won the Mormon History Association's best book award for 1976.

Hill was a professor of American history at BYU starting in the 1960s.^[5] In 1972 he took leave from BYU to accept a post-doctoral research fellowship at Yale University.^[6] He has also served as president of the Mormon History Association and on the board of editors of the Journal of Mormon History.^[7]

In Mormon studies, Hill was a well known proponent of the New Mormon History^[8] and advocated a "middle ground" approach which didn't seek to describe Mormonism as authentic or fraudulent.^[9]

Hill married Lila Foster in 1953. They have six children and lived in Provo, Utah.^[10] He is the brother of Donna Hill, author of the noted 1977 biography Joseph Smith, the First Mormon.^[11][12]

Awards

• 1975: Best Book Award for Carthage Conspiracy with Dallin H. Oaks (Mormon History Association)^[13]
• 1977: Best Article By a Senior Author for "The Kirtland Economy Revisited" with C. Keith Rooker and Larry T. Wimmer (Mormon History Association)^[13]
• 1989: Best Book Award for Quest for Refuge (Mormon History Association)^[13]

Writings

Books

• Hill, Marvin S.; Allen, James B., eds. (1972). Mormonism and American Culture. Interpretations of American History. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-042819-8.
• Oaks, Dallin H.; Hill, Marvin S. (1975). Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-00554-6.
• Hill, Marvin S.; C. Keith Rooker; Larry T. Wimmer (1977). The Kirtland Economy Revisited: A Market Critique of Sectarian Economics. Studies in Mormon History 3. Provo, Utah: BYU Press. ISBN 0-8425-1230-6. Published concurrently in BYU Studies 17.
• —— (1989). Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-70-2.
• Smith, Joseph, Jr. (1995). Marvin S. Hill, ed. The Essential Joseph Smith. Classics in Mormon Thought 4. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-71-0.

Articles

• Hill, Marvin S. (December 1959). "Survey: The Historiography of Mormonism". Church History 28: 418–26. JSTOR 3162089.
• —— (Spring 1969). "The Shaping of the Mormon Mind in New England and New York". BYU Studies 9 (3): 351–72.
• —— (Autumn 1970). "The Manipulation of History". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 5 (3): 96–99.
• —— (Winter 1972). "Joseph Smith and the 1826 Trial: New Evidence and New Difficulties". BYU Studies 12 (2): 223–33.
• —— (Summer 1972). "An Uncertain Voice in the Wilderness". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 7 (2): 54–56.
• —— (Winter 1972). "Brodie Revisited: A Reappraisal". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 7 (4): 72–85.
• —— (March 1974). "Secular or Sectarian History?: A Critique of 'No Man Knows My History'". Church History 43 (1): 78–96.
• —— (1975). "Quest for Refuge: An Hypothesis as to the Social Origins and Nature of the Mormon Political Kingdom". Journal of Mormon History 2: 3–20.
• —— (Spring 1976). "Mormon Religion in Nauvoo: Some Reflections". Utah Historical Quarterly 44: 170–80.
• —— (1976). "The "Prophet Puzzle" Assembled; or, How to Treat Our Historical Diplopia toward Joseph Smith". Journal of Mormon History 3: 101–05.
• —— (1978). "The Rise of the Mormon Kingdom of God". In Richard D. Poll. Utah's History. Provo, Utah: BYU Press. pp. 97–112. ISBN 0-8425-0842-2.
• —— (Spring 1979). "A Note of Joseph Smith's First Vision and Its Import in the Shaping of Early Mormonism". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 12 (1): 90–99.
• —— (October 1980). "The Rise of Mormonism in the Burned-Over District: Another View". New York History (New York State Historical Association) 61 (4): 411–430.
• —— (September 1980). "Cultural Crisis in the Mormon Kingdom: A Reconsideration of the Causes of Kirtland Dissent". Church History 49 (1): 286–97.
• —— (Spring 1981). "Joseph Smith the Man: Some Reflections on a Subject of Controversy". BYU Studies 21 (2): 175–86.
• —— (Summer 1982). "The First Vision Controversy, A Critique and Reconciliation". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 15 (2): 31–46.
• —— (1984). "Richard L. Bushman: Scholar and Apologist". Journal of Mormon History 11: 125–133.
• —— (Fall 1984). "Money-Digging Folklore and the Beginnings of Mormonism: An Interpretive Suggestion". BYU Studies 24 (4): 473–488.
• ——. "Dialogue". In Charles H. Lippy. Religious Periodicals of the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-23420-5.
• —— (Autumn 1988). "The 'New Mormon History' Reassessed in Light of Recent Books on Joseph Smith and Mormon Origins". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 21 (3): 115–127.
• —— (June 1989). "Counter-Revolution: The Mormon Reaction to the Coming of American Democracy" (PDF). Sunstone 13 (3): 24–33.
• —— (Fall 1990). "Afterward". BYU Studies 30 (4): 117–124.
• —— (Spring 1994). "Positivism or Subjectivism? Some Reflections on a Mormon Historical Dilemma". Journal of Mormon History 20 (1): 1–23.
• —— (Summer 2004). "Carthage Conspiracy Reconsidered: A Second Look at the Murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith" (PDF). Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 97 (2): 107–34.
• —— (Fall 2006). "By Any Standard, a Remarkable Book". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 39 (3): 155–63.

Other

• Hill, Marvin S. (1955), An Historical Study of the Life of Orson Hyde: Early Mormon Missionary and Apostle From 1805-1852, M.A. thesis, Provo, Utah: Department of History, Brigham Young University
• —— (June 1968), The Role of Christian Primitivism in the Origin and Development of the Mormon Kingdom, 1830-1844, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, University of Chicago

Notes

1. Hill, Marvin S. (1955), An Historical Study of the Life of Orson Hyde: Early Mormon Missionary and Apostle From 1805-1852, M.A. thesis, Provo, Utah: Department of History, Brigham Young University
2. Marty, Martin E. (June 7–14, 1989). "Sophisticated Primitives Then, Primitive Sophisticates Now". The Christian Century. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
3. Hill, Marvin S. (June 1968), The Role of Christian Primitivism in the Origin and Development of the Mormon Kingdom, 1830-1844, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, University of Chicago, retrieved 2010-02-24
4. Oaks, Dallin (May 1996). "Joseph, the Man and the Prophet". Ensign: 71. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
5. Hill, Marvin S. (Spring 1969). "The Shaping of the Mormon Mind in New England and New York" (PDF). BYU Studies 9 (3): 351–72. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
6. "Notes on Contributors". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 7 (2): 105. Winter 1972. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
7. Hill, Marvin S. (1975). "Quest for Refuge: An Hypothesis as to the Social Origins and Nature of the Mormon Political Kingdom". Journal of Mormon History 2: 3–20. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
8. Bohn, David Earle (1992). "Unfounded Claims and Impossible Expectations: A Critique of New Mormon History". In George D. Smith. Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-007-8. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
9. Midgley, Louis (1992). "The Acids of Modernity and the Crisis in Mormon Historiography". In George D. Smith. Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-007-8. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
10. Hill, Marvin S. (1989). Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism (Dust jacket: About the Author). Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-70-2. Retrieved 2010-02-23.
11. Hill, Donna (1977). Joseph Smith, the First Mormon. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. p. xii. ISBN 0-385-00804-X.
12. Hill, Marvin S. (1989). "Acknowledgments". Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
13. "MHA Awards Summary" (PDF). Mormon History Association. 2008. Retrieved 2010-02-25.

External links

• The Marvin S. Hill papers at the University of Utah
• Works by or about Marvin S. Hill in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Photograph of Marvin Hill