Mormon Polygamous Families: Life in the Principle

Embry draws from both sociology and history to examine the workings of polygamous households in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Mormonism. A straightforward, scholarly approach to an era of regional history that has too often been relegated to folklore and myth. An examination of the practice of polygamy is essential to fully understand Mormonism historically. To gain a complete insight into the practice, however, one needs to look beyond the revelation and the laws that were passed against polygamy to the motives, beliefs, perceptions, and experiences of those who were part of polygamous families.

Jessie L. Embry is the Associate Director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies and an Associate Research Professor at Brigham Young University. Since publishing Mormon Polygamous Families: Life in the Principle, Embry has published three books on ethnic Mormons, a book on Mormon wards as community, and two community histories.She is currently working on a book on LDS Sports and Recreation. She has published over eighty articles on topics relating to oral history, Mormon history, and western history. She directs a Western Studies Minor in the American Studies Program for the Redd Center.