The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden

This felicitous collection deepens our understanding of the changing relationship between Latter-day Saints and the environmental world that here encompasses land, water, habitat, place, and home. A milestone in Mormon studies and a benchmark for future scholarship.

Jared Farmer, author of On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape

A significant contribution. These essays provide a synthesis of the growing literature in the field as well as a springboard and road map for future studies.

Andrew H. Hedges, professor, Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University

This collection makes a major contribution to Mormon studies by incorporating sophisticated methodologies and perspectives from the field of environmental history. The editors succeed in raising the bar on Mormon historiography with this anthology. The writing is clear and accessible and doesn’t shy away from significant and nuanced interpretations.

Kevin Marsh, professor, Department of History, Idaho State University

While essays in edited volumes such as this are often uneven in terms of the quality and the contribution they offer, each piece in this work is remark­ably well written and significant. As the book’s introduction explains, Latter-day Saint environmental history is a rela­tively new discipline, ripe with opportu­nities and avenues for engagement. The introduction and Jedediah S. Rogers’s opening essay constitute a wonder­ful primer for anyone embarking on Latter-day Saint environmental history research—I found myself wishing I had had these articles when I first began to dabble in the discipline.

BYU Studies Quarterly

A seminal contribution to the nascent field of Latter-day Saint environmental studies, The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden lays out the field’s historical foundations… With Jedidiah Rogers’ historiographical summary and the wide range of topics and authors, the book provides a solid introduction to the state of the field. Its examination of environmental thinking in the LDS church will benefit students and scholars alike.

Nova Religio

The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden makes a compelling argument for expanding Mormon studies and environmental history. It calls for scholars and even Latter-day Saints themselves to reevaluate the critical historical environmental ethic of Latter-day Saints and how it had a profound effect on the settlement of the American West. The benefit to those who find themselves squarely situated in Mormon studies is to provide a fresh new lens through which to examine traditional topics anew. For environmental scholars, Mormon studies affords fertile ground for further intellectual cultivation.

Journal of Mormon History