Monthly Archives: February 2015

New Release: “The Hand of Providence” by J. H. Ward

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This 1883 book by J. H. Ward is an early Mormon take on world history; it’s now available on Project Gutenberg, complete with more than thirty original illustrations. You may remember J. H. Ward as the author of Gospel Philosophy, a book on science and the gospel that we released and discussed some time ago.

The Church today has a particular understanding of how world history led up to the Restoration; this book shows Ward’s 19th century understanding of that topic, including discussion of Rome, the Middle East, the Reformation, the Americas, etc. I’m not sure to what extent Ward was popularizing existing theories vs. breaking new ground, but either way this is interesting stuff from a historiographical perspective.

“Mormon Settlement in Arizona” by James H. McClintock

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This work, by a non-Mormon historian of Arizona, discusses the titular topic and was produced some time ago by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders. (As longtime readers know, I think very highly of PGDP.) It touches on the Mormon Battalion, pioneer and Forty Years Among the Indians author Daniel W. Jones, noted missionary Jacob Hamblin, and the ancient history of the area, among other things. Give it a look.

The existence of this e-book somehow escaped our notice up until now, but no longer; now it’s on the Available Texts page. On that note, should anyone know of similar works already available on PG or elsewhere, get in touch–we want to get the word out about them.

2015 Mormon Texts Project Summer Internship Program

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The Mormon Texts Project is once again offering a summer internship program this year, in which interns will have the opportunity to learn the e-book production process and produce at least one e-book start to finish. Last year the inaugural internship program was a great success, and this year’s program will build on last year’s to offer an even better experience for interns. The 2015 internship syllabus is available here and includes instructions on how to apply.

The internship is a part-time volunteer opportunity intended for students with interests in electronic publishing and/or Mormon history, doctrine, etc. BYU offers history or editing credit hours to MTP interns, and Utah State offers religious studies credit. We’re willing to work with other universities or departments to offer other relevant academic credit, or interns can participate simply for the prestige of working with the premiere organizations for public domain LDS e-books (MTP) and public domain e-books generally (Project Gutenberg). That and a subway token will get you on the subway, folks.