Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

1963

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

History

First Advisor

Lurie

Second Advisor

Kelly

Abstract

In the spring of 1844 the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith organized a secret organization called the Council of Fifty as the governing body of a political kingdom of God which ultimately was to rule the world. The idea of the political kingdom of God and attempts of the Council of Fifty to transform this idea into reality through the creation of a temporal Mormon state provide the central theme of Mormon history during the major part of the nineteenth century. It is therefore one of the more puzzling phenomena of historiography that these aspects of Mormon history have escaped almost entirely the scrutiny of historians. It is the major purpose of this study to fill this gap.

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