A01=Matthew L Harris
Author_Matthew L Harris
biography
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ezra taft benson
ezra taft benson anticommunism
ezra taft benson biography
ezra taft benson politics
ezra taft benson republican
ezra taft benson secretary of agriculture
politics
socialized agriculture
Product details
- ISBN 9781607817574
- Weight: 335g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 30 Sep 2020
- Publisher: University of Utah Press,U.S.
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Ezra Taft Benson is perhaps the most controversial apostle-president in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For nearly fifty years he delivered impassioned sermons in Utah and elsewhere, mixing religion with ultraconservative right-wing political views and conspiracy theories. His teachings inspired Mormon extremists to stockpile weapons, predict the end of the world, and commit acts of violence against their government. The First Presidency rebuked him, his fellow apostles wanted him disciplined, and grassroots Mormons called for his removal from the Quorum of the Twelve. Yet Benson was beloved by millions of Latter-day Saints, who praised him for his stances against communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and admired his service as secretary of agriculture under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Using previously restricted documents from archives across the United States, Matthew L. Harris breaks new ground as the first to evaluate why Benson embraced a radical form of conservatism, and how under his leadership Mormons became the most reliable supporters of the Republican Party of any religious group in America.
Matthew L. Harris is professor of history at Colorado State University-Pueblo. He is the author of The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History and editor of Thunder from the Right: Ezra Taft Benson in Mormonism and Politics.
