B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena

by John Sillito

Without question, Mormonism’s most influential scholar during the first half of the twentieth century was B. H. Roberts (1857–1933), historian, theologian, public intellectual, and member of the First Council of Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Outside of his official church duties and his passion for research and writing, Roberts was an active figure in partisan politics, having run for Congress twice, elected once, but due to opposition from both political parties over polygamy, was never seated. This biography by prize-winning historian John Sillito, the fullest and most scholarly assessment to date of the controversial church leader, examines Roberts’s entire life, with particular attention to the public figure who remains influential, even today. Born in England to LDS convert parents, Roberts served as a missionary and several years after his call as a general authority, at age sixty, began serving as a chaplain during World War I. From 1922–27 he presided over the church’s Eastern States Mission. Although a hero to many even today for his scholarly output—a feat still rare among those called to church leadership—modern assessments recognize antiquated views on race and women’s suffrage. Yet Roberts remains a deeply compelling figure worthy of study.

Genres: Religion

673 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 30, 2021

Reviews

[Kevin Folkman · Rating 5 out of 5]

In an undated note near the end of his life in 1937, B. H. Roberts wrote:

“I feel that I am a little associated with the pioneers of Utah for as a boy I marched beside our ox teams every foot of the way from the Missouri river to these mountain valleys, to this city. I felt the restraining influence of the Church’s hand upon me in the wayward days of my boyhood; and as I passed into manhood, a deep conviction of the teachings lay hold of my heart. I spent the best days of my life as her representative abroad and in the United States, in the midst of persecution and mob violence. I passed through all these experiences. [p484]

In the new biography, B. H. Roberts: A life in the Public Arena, John Sillito offers a comprehensive narrative of the life of Brigham H. Roberts. General authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, political mover and shaker in Utah politics, outstanding orator/writer/historian, Roberts’ life reflected the turbulent times he lived in, spanning the pioneer era to well into the 20th century. He wrote and edited much of the official history of the Church, served multiple missions both in the United States and in England, was elected (but never seated) as Utah’s Congressional representative, and ministered as a volunteer chaplain in the United States Army in World War I. Also pertinent to his times, he opposed women’s suffrage, served time in the territorial prison for cohabitation with his polygamous wives, and held views on race that are at odds with the Church’s current doctrine and policy.

Such a broad and expansive life, filled with adventures and contradictions, deserves a large canvas. Sillito, Professor Emeritus at Weber State University, delivers with the most complete biography of Roberts to date. Sillito previously edited a collection Roberts’ diaries, and supplements that here with extensive archival research to produce a detailed narrative of one of the LDS church’s most influential and complicated leaders.

Sillito uses the massive documentary record well, balancing Roberts’ own stories and the letters and journals of his contemporaries against the voluminous newspaper accounts of his activities both religious and secular. Indeed, as the book’s subtitle points out, Roberts was rarely out of the public eye after his call as the presiding authority of the Southern States Mission at age 37. Already prominent in Utah for his oratorical skills, he became nationally known for retrieving the bodies of two LDS missionaries killed in the Cane Creek Massacre in Tennessee in 1884 under hostile circumstances. Violence in the South against missionaries had been mounting, and culminated in an attack on a church meeting at a member’s home that resulted in the death of two missionaries, a church member, and one of the attackers. Roberts was well known to church critics, and was aware that his own life had been targeted. Disguising himself as a poor tramp, Roberts evaded his enemies, and with money borrowed from a friendly non-member, returned the bodies of the two missionaries home to Utah.

Roberts was rarely out of the public eye for the rest of his life. He was active in Utah politics, served as a member of the church’s Presidency of the Seventies, and encouraged the church to involve itself in the 1893 Columbian Exposition and World’s Fair in Chicago and its accompanying World Parliament of Religions. Appointed by the First Presidency to represent the church at the Parliament, the Parliament’s refusal to admit him or the church to that assembly made headlines for months. After his election to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1898, a national campaign to oppose seating him as a practicing polygamist drew the attention of the national press, and resulted in rejection of his credentials, leaving his seat in the House unoccupied, and Roberts in a period of depression. Never again a candidate, Roberts continued to be an advocate for the Democratic Party in Utah, and as a public ambassador for the LDS Church. Following his service as a chaplain in WWI, Roberts was called to preside over the Eastern States Mission, where he continued to be a vocal public figure.

Sillito spends less time on Roberts’ personal life, where he struggled to provide financially for his three families, suffered occasional bouts of depression, and labored to overcome problems with alcohol. He does address the tensions between Roberts and other church leaders over politics, theology, and his pugnacious style. Some of these differences spilled over into the public conversation. Sillito presents the thoughts and feelings of his general authority contemporaries, who alternated between concerns for Roberts’ eternal welfare, and the undeniable power of his presence as a missionary and ambassador for the Church. Sillito doesn’t ignore these themes, but focuses his biography, as the title suggests, on Roberts’ public life.

In the end, Sillito has used a much broader range of sources than previous treatments of Roberts to capture a more detailed presentation of his subject’s life. In particular, the extensive use of newspaper accounts of Roberts’ life stood out as Sillito’s most significant contribution to Roberts’ story. More time could have been spent on Roberts’ research into problematic issues in the Book of Mormon translation and his work in the office of the Church Historian, but that would have made for a much longer book. It would have been nice to have them all between covers of one book, but those stories are out there in other articles and essays. More exhaustive research, though, could have led to an exhausting reading experience, as the book is long already at almost 600 pages. Despite these omissions, B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena is the most definitive treatment of his life to date, and worthy of the attention of scholars and readers wanting to better understand the pivotal times Roberts occupied, and the roles he played in it.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the course of the almost 90 years that have passed since his death, Elder Brigham Henry Roberts (1857-1933) has received the high praise of being called Mormonism’s most eminent intellectual,[1] the best officially accepted theologian that Mormonism has known,[2] one of our most important historians,[3] and the most prolific and most effective defender of the Church.[4]  Imagine my delight, then, to find that the most significant biography since Truman G. Madsen’s 1980 Defender of the Faith was recently published by Signature Books.  John Sillito’s B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena is a solid, well-written and well-researched biography.  It covers Roberts’s life chronologically, from his rough childhood in England and Utah to his early missions, his involvement in politics in Utah, his election and unseating from the U.S. House of Representatives, his time as a chaplain in WWI, and his service as a mission president in the eastern United States.  Throughout, the biography has a strong focus on “his actions and activities, and how that involvement made him such an important public figure.”  As such, however, it doesn’t try to function as a comprehensive biography of Roberts and doesn’t provide “a thorough chronicling or his theological views and thought,” discussion about the development of the First Council of the Seventy during his tenure in that office, or his private family life.  Instead, it aims to “provide much new information on him and his public life.”[5]  And it does a splendid job of achieving that goal.

I learned a lot about B. H. Roberts and the context of his life by reading this biography.  And that’s not an insignificant statement—I’ve been working on a topical quote book of Roberts’s thought off and on over the last decade and have been working on reading everything I can find that has been written about him or by him during the time.  While I still have a decent amount of ground to cover, I knew a lot about B. H. Roberts going into reading B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena.  Some of the things from Sillito’s biography that I learned more about were a lot of context for the persecution of Mormon missionaries in the Southern United States during Roberts’s time serving there, a deeper understanding of his several conflicts with other Church leaders (particularly Joseph F. Smith and Reed Smoot), and his involvement in politics in Utah after being rejected by the House of Representatives.  Sillito’s admiration for Roberts shines through, but he also isn’t uncritical, and the biography doesn’t shy away from pointing out the darker side of B. H. Roberts.  For example, Sillito notes that Roberts could be “overbearing, petty, and at times disagreeable,” giving a particularly startling example during his congressional campaign where he called Utah governor Heber M. Wells, “craven and a son of a bitch” after Wells had publicly criticized him, which led his friend J. Golden Kimball to observe that: “The spirit Roberts manifested was from hell.  He was bitter and malicious.”[6]  I did enjoy some of the more humorous stories too, though, such as a time when he was preaching towards the end of his life and became so animated that his upper dentures became dislodged and flew into the air, only to be caught and returned back to his mouth with barely a pause in his sermon or a time when he lost his temper about having to use a newly-installed microphone and tried to take it out with his cane mid-sermon.  While it is a “warts-and-all” biography (at least within the scope of what the biography covers), it helped me to understand Roberts more fully as a person and I appreciated its candor and lack of defensiveness about the main subject.

The biography is very well researched.  Footnotes are held at the bottom of each page, giving information about the sources being referenced as well as about the different people that are mentioned throughout the volume.  It draws on a variety of sources, from newspapers to journals of people around him throughout his life to letters written by B. H. Roberts (I found the quotes from letters to his mother to be particularly illuminating about his inner thoughts), and much more.  I will say appreciated being able to glance down to the bottom of the pages to learn more about the various figures that were being introduced as well as to see where the information was coming from.  I admired the level of thoroughness that went into the research and writing of this book.

All told, I highly recommend picking up a copy of John Sillito’s B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena to add to your library.  This is particularly true if you are interested in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the turn of the twentieth century, B. H. Roberts as an individual, or the political history of Utah.  While not a comprehensive account of B. H. Roberts’s life, it is a valuable contribution to understanding the actions and life of one of Mormonism’s most significant figures.

Footnotes:

[1] See Stan Larson, “Intellectuals in Mormon History: An Update,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26 (Fall 1993): 187-189.

[2] See Blake T. Ostler, “An Interview with Sterling McMurrin,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 17 (Spring 1984): 38.

[3] See Craig Mikkelsen, “The Politics of B. H. Roberts,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 9, no. 2, p. 26.

[4] See McKay V. Jones, “Evasive Ignorance: Anti-Mormon Claims that B. H. Roberts Lost His Testimony,” FAIR, https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/a....

[5] John Sillito, B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2021), x-xi.

[6] Sillito, 313.

[Erik Champenois · Rating 4 out of 5]

"B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena," is, as the title implies, not a complete biography, but rather a biography of B.H. Robert's public life - both in the church and in politics. The book only partially covers Roberts' personal life and just barely mentions his theological thought and writings. While I found myself wanting to read a longer and more holistic book to understand Roberts and his thinking more fully, that isn't the kind of book the author set out to write. Instead, the author wrote a book that is vital for understanding the LDS Church vis-à-vis Utah and national politics during the era of Mormonism's transition from the 1880s through 1933.

The book shines in particular in its treatment of B.H. Roberts' run for Congress in 1898 and the subsequent successful resistance to him taking his seat. It also helps you better understand the dynamics of how polygamy and its end impacted the personal and public life of B.H. Roberts and of the LDS Church and its members as a whole. B.H. Roberts became a polygamist in 1884 and had difficulties accepting the Manifesto when it (mostly) ended new polygamous marriages in 1890. Interestingly, B.H. Robert's marriage to his third wife most likely took place after the Manifesto. While the Manifesto ended new polygamous relationships, it did not end existing ones and Roberts continued to cohabit (in separate houses) with all three of his wives until their/his deaths. (Looking back, I wonder how frequent continuously existing polygamous marriages would have been in local Utah communities as late as the 1930s and 1940s). Roberts apparently also felt free to seriously flirt with the much younger Leah Dunford in 1897 (encouraged by her mother, Susa Young Gates) - one of the book's juicier parts.

Sillito focuses particularly on politics and demonstrates just how divided church leaders were amongst themselves when it came to politics. While Church members had traditionally been Democrats, church leaders (and until the Depression, church members) under Joseph F. Smith became predominantly Republican. The tensions that resulted from church leaders speaking out on politics or even running for office even resulted in Apostle Moses Thatcher being dropped from the Quorum of the Twelve (and nearly could have resulted in B.H. Roberts himself losing church office). Frankly, while I understand that some amount of rulemaking and discipline needed to be enforced for church leaders, some of the conversations recounted in the book make some of the church leaders of the time seem sometimes more infatuated with enforcing their own authority than with striving for the unity of the church.

While covering politics, the book also covers B.H. Robert's impressive service as a missionary and mission leader. B.H. Roberts became most famous within the Church for his efforts to secretly secure the bodies of the two missionaries killed in Tennessee in 1884. He also preached the Gospel in England and served as mission president of the Eastern States Mission. He was admired as a preacher and proponent of missionary work and was the first one to develop a standardized set of missionary lessons.

B.H. Roberts doesn't always come across as likeable or admirable, however. In spite of being considered one of Mormonism's foremost theological thinkers, his personal manners could be needlessly antagonistic. Roberts had his enemies, including as a result of him campaigning against women's suffrage. And, unsurprisingly, he had favorites among his plural wives and did not care equally for them, leading to tensions between the different parts of his family. Roberts comes across in this book as fully human, but also as one with a wild and interesting life history. While I would have liked to have read more about his theology, in the end this examination of his public life proves at least as interesting as a book on his theology would have been.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember becoming aware of B. H. Roberts when I was a student at the University of Utah. I believe there was a display at the library about a special collection of his collected works. I checked out a book from the library too, I can't remember the specifics, but I remember learning that here was a general authority who had some nuanced takes on the historicity of the Book of Mormon. That seemed way outside of my experience with church leaders, and I remember experiencing a bit of dissonance. I'm glad to learn a bit more of the life of this important figure in church history that perhaps most members aren't aware of.

B. H. Roberts is a very flawed character, but in many ways it is refreshing. He's honest, and he is willing to express his true views, even though he is a general authority. It certainly got him into trouble at times-- I believe it even featured in a recent general conference address? Stilitto includes this reflection at the end: "In a church that values obedience and conformity, a man who was rebuked by church leaders for his obstinacy more than once remains respected and admired." Some surprising things you may find out about him. Roberts supported the priesthood ban, in fact was one of its most vehement supporters. He was a democrat and a union man, and stood up for workers rights. He opposed giving women the right to vote. He at times struggled with alcoholism. He broached uncomfortable church topics, such as the historicity of the Book of Mormon and the flaws of Joseph Smith. He often got into conflicts with church leaders. He was a polygamist. He was elected to Congress, but then denied his seat due to his plural marriages. He had in some ways tortured family life, as he was closer to his third wife than his first two.

Despite his flaws, Roberts is a microcosm of Mormonism. Historically he sits in as a bridge between Mormonism's roots and modernity. The book points out he lived through the Civil War while living to see automobiles and radio. He provides a focal point to reflect on the complexities within Mormonism, and I feel enriched reading about his example of faith.

The book is up front that there were source documents that were not available, and thus is book about the public, not the private, life of B. H. Roberts. I did find myself wanting to know more about his family life, as that seemed a big whole in the picture. I know that polygamous life-- pre- and post-manifesto-- must have been very challenging, and the apparent favoritism that comes through the biography seems very painful. I would have liked to hear from Margaret, Celia, and Sarah in their own words a lot more.

Overall a very good read.

[Tyson Stoddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an informative look at the life and activities of B.H. Roberts. He had a unique and interesting life and his oratorical abilities seem to have been almost unmatched. I wish I could have had the experience of listening to him speak. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in Mormonism/Mormon history.