Marvin S. Hill

Marvin Sidney Hill (born 1930) is a retired professor of American history at Brigham Young University (BYU) and a historian of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Contents

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 and they had 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

Writings

Books

Articles

Other

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. http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=185. 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, http://www.solomonspalding.com/docs2/Hill1968.htm, retrieved 2010-02-24 
  4. ^ Oaks, Dallin (May 1996). "Joseph, the Man and the Prophet". Ensign: 71. http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=42e47cf34f40c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD. 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. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/byustudies,58. Retrieved 2010-02-24. 
  6. ^ "Notes on Contributors". Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 7 (2): 105. Winter 1972. http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/dialogue,565. 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. http://content.lib.utah.edu/u?/jmh,15635. 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. http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/faithful/chapter14.htm. 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. http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/faithful/chapter13.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-24. 
  10. ^ Hill, Marvin S. (1989) (Dust jacket: About the Author). Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-70-2. http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/quest/cover.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-23. 
  11. ^ Hill, Donna (1977). Joseph Smith, the First Mormon. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. p. xii. ISBN 038500804X. 
  12. ^ Hill, Marvin S. (1989). "Acknowledgments". Quest for Refuge: The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. http://www.signaturebookslibrary.org/quest/acknowledgements.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-24. 
  13. ^ a b c "MHA Awards Summary" (PDF). Mormon History Association. 2008. http://www.mhahome.org/awards/MHA_Awards_Summary_2008.pdf. Retrieved 2010-02-25. 

External links