David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism is the first book to draw upon the David O. McKay Papers at the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, in addition to some two hundred interviews conducted by the authors, Gregory Prince and William Robert Wright.

[2] Based largely on an extensive body of records gathered and maintained by McKay's longtime secretary, Clare Middlemiss, the book focuses on the years of McKay's presidency, during which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faced the challenges of worldwide growth in an age of communism, the American Civil Rights Movement, and ecumenism.

The Journal of Mormon History praised the book as a "fine example of the bookmaker's art, the oversize volume is beautifully designed and brilliantly executed" and commented that although they had initially held concerns about the work being based predominantly on the Middlemiss diaries, they grew more confident on the material's accuracy, the further they read in the book.

[3] The journal Church History also gave a favorable review, stating that it should be "required reading in American Religion".

A trained historian would have pared down the material, done some paraphrasing and devoted precious time to analyzing the evidence.