The Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy (Religion in America)

Published in 1997, Terryl Givens's The Viper on the Hearth was widely praised as a landmark work--indeed, The Wall Street Journal hailed it as "one of the five best books on Mormonism." Now, in the wake of a tidal wave of Mormon-inspired artistic, literary, and political activity--ranging from the Broadway hit The Book of Mormon , to the HBO series Big Love , to the political campaign of Mitt Romney--Givens presents an updated edition that addresses the continuing presence and reception of the Mormon image in contemporary culture. The Viper on the Hearth showed how nineteenth- and twentieth-century American writers frequently cast the Mormon as a stock villain in such fictional genres as mysteries, westerns, and popular romances. If today some authors like Tom Clancy use "Mormon" as shorthand for "clean cut and patriotic," earlier writers more often depicted the Mormons as a violent and perverse people--the "viper on the hearth"--who sought to violate the domestic sphere of the mainstream. Givens is the first to reveal how popular fiction constructed an image of the Mormon as a religious and social Other. The list of authors includes both American and English writers, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes mystery to Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage , from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Dynamiter to Jack London's Star Rover . For this edition, Givens has expanded the final chapter, shedding further light on the Mormon presence in contemporary American culture, with insightful discussions of topics ranging from the musical, The Book of Mormon , to the political campaigns of Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. "Published in 1997, Terryl Givens's The Viper on the Hearth was widely praised as a landmark work--indeed, The Wall Street Journal hailed it as "one of the five best books on Mormonism." Now, in the wake of a tidal wave of Mormon-inspired artistic, literary, and political activity--ranging from the Broadway hit The Book of Mormon, to the HBO series Big Love, to the political campaign of Mitt Romney--Givens presents an updated edition that addresses the continuing presence and reception of the Mormon image in contemporary culture. The Viper on the Hearth showed how nineteenth- and twentieth-century American writers frequently cast the Mormon as a stock villain in such fictional genres as mysteries, westerns, and popular romances. If today some authors like Tom Clancy use "Mormon" as shorthand for "clean cut and patriotic," earlier writers more often depicted the Mormons as a violent and perverse people--the "viper on the hearth"--Who sought to violate the domestic sphere of the mainstream. Givens is the first to reveal how popular fiction constructed an image of the Mormon as a religious and social Other. The list of authors includes both American and English writers, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes mystery to Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage, from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Dynamiter to Jack London's Star Rover. For this edition, Givens has expanded the final chapter, shedding further light on the Mormon presence in contemporary American culture, with insightful discussions of topics ranging from the musical, The Book of Mormon, to the political campaigns of Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman."-- Publisher's description Content: Introduction Part I: Mormonism, Politics, and History 1. "Out of the Sphere of Religion": The Sacred, the Profane, and the Mormons 2. "This Upstart Sect": The Mormon Problem in American History 3. "Manners, Habits, Customs, and Even Dialect": Sources of the Mormon Conflict 4. "An Age of Humbugs": The Contemporary Scene 5. "This Great Modern Abomination": Orthodoxy and Heresy in American Religion Part II: Mormonism and Fiction 6. "Ground in the Presbyterian Smut Machine": The Popular Press, Fiction, and Moral Crusading 7. "The Ain't Whites...They're Mormons": Fictive Responses to the Anxiety of Seduction 8. "Murder and Mystery - Mormon Style": The Mormon Image in the Twentieth Century Notes Index ## Abstract In 1997 this book was praised as a new classic in Mormon studies. In the wake of Mormon-inspired and -created artistic, literary, and political activity—today's “Mormon moment”—this book has now been revised and updated to address the continuing presence and reception of the Mormon image in contemporary culture. It provides a comprehensive study of how Mormons have been constructed in popular culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Interdisciplinary research in this book relies on historical and literary sources. The book also provides novel scholarship on religious formation, identity, and persecution. In 1997, Terryl Givens's 'The Viper on the Hearth' was praised as a new classic in Mormon studies. In the wake of Mormon-inspired and -created artistic, literary, and political activity - today's 'Mormon moment' - Givens presents a revised and updated edition of his book to address the continuing presence and reception of the Mormon image in contemporary culture