About

This database includes citations to articles, books, theses, and Ph.D. dissertations dealing with the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, written from the time of its inception in 1830 to the present. It is intended to be comprehensive, but does not include highly pejorative works, though it does include controversial works that still have historical substance or interest. Subject headings are included for all entries, and many entries include abstracts and links to the full text.

This database serves as an enlarged edition of James B. Allen, Ronald W. Walker, and David J. Whittaker’s Studies in Mormon History 1830-1997: An Indexed Bibliography (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000), which included entries from 1830 to 1997 and also included Armand L. Mauss and Dynette Ivie Reynold’s “A Topical Guide to Published Social Science Literature on the Mormons, entries from which can be found in this database using the subject term “Sociological studies.”

The online edition of this bibliography also contains entries from “Mormon Diaries: An Annotated and Indexed Bibliography of Published Mormon Diaries and Journals” by J. Michael Hunter, Jennifer J. Bussio, John E. Fahey, and Russell Stevenson. These entries are found under the subject term “Diaries and journals.”

Sometime in the early 2000s, Jim Allen and Mike Hunter moved the data to a free, online platform. Mike Hunter was the steward of the database for several years until leadership transferred to Gerrit van Dyk and Trevor Alvord in 2015. Alvord served as an advisor until 2017 when van Dyk assumed sole leadership and maintenance. In 2024 the database was renamed Latter-day Saint Studies (LDSS).

Since 2015, the following students have made significant contributions to this database, serving as lead students for lengthy periods:

Ariel Na, Jonathan Peters, Madeline Olsen, and Alexandria Libberton.

Additionally, the following students have also contributed to the database:

Benjamin Lentz, Taylore Bonds, Kristine Kim, Sarah Safsten, Chelsea DeGolyer, Leah Darby, Grant Rasmussen, Jenny Kim, Cadence Potter, Patricia Evans, Gillian Byrd, Sariah Roulstone, David Johnson, Porter Kindall, Josie Mumford, Jane Winward, and others.

LDSS is updated daily.

Contact

Do you have suggestions, corrections, and additions?
Email Greg Seppi: Greg.Seppi@byu.edu