How Do You Write the Biography of Brigham Young?

Brigham Young was a towering figure in the history of the American West, and arguably the most controversial. Revered as a prophet by Latter-day Saints, as the "American Moses" raised up by the Lord to preside over their forced exodus beyond the Rocky Mountains and their establishment of a "Great Basin Kingdom," he has also been utterly reviled by critics, from his own time until today.

Thus, to write a serious biography of Brigham Young is, unavoidably, to engage topics that have long been debated, often passionately. Happily, Thomas Alexander, Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. Professor Emeritus of Western History at Brigham Young University and former director of BYU's Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, is extraordinarily well qualified for the task.