Newell G. Bringhurst, PhD, recently retired from twenty-five years teaching history and political science at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California, where he and his wife Mary Ann live. Newell is the author or editor of numerous books, including Saints, Slaves and Blacks, Excavating Mormon Pasts: The New Historiography of the Last Half Century, and Reconsidering No Man Knows My History, and The Mormon Quest for the Presidency.

Since coming across Steven Shields’ excellent Divergent Paths of the Restoration, I’ve become interested in the various Latter Day Saint churches. For the record, I’m a former member of the LDS church. Growing up, the only other Latter Day Saint church I even knew about was the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now known as the Community of Christ. Later on, I came to know about the existence of the Fundamentalists, especially in Colorado City. As for the others, I knew very little about them.

This book is especially valuable, since it covers lesser known sects of the Latter Day Saint movement. There are a couple of excellent articles on the Cutlerites. The article on Fundamentalist Mormons is written by Anne Wilde, herself a plural wife. The article on the Bickertonites, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ (headquartered in Monongohela, PA) is written by a member of that body. There are also articles on Strangites and how many of them ended up in the RLDS church. Finally, there is article on a recent schism within the Community of Christ (RLDS church), namely the Restoration Branches movement.