Leonard James Arrington (July 2, 1917 – February 11, 1999) was an American author, academic and the founder of the Mormon History Association.

On the other hand, I am called to be a historian, which means that I must earn the respect of professional historians—what I write must be craftsmanlike, credible, and of good quality.

After a Fulbright professorship at the University of Genoa in Italy, Arrington raised funds to pay for research and writing on LDS (Mormon) biographies.

[1] For his FFA independent project, he raised several hundred Rhode Island Red chickens and won a prize for them at the Idaho State Fair in 1934.

[8] George S. Tanner, the director of the LDS Institute at the University of Idaho, was a progressive intellectual Mormon who taught Arrington that Christianity and science could be compatible and that other translations of the Bible could assist in its interpretation.

[1] While stationed at a Prisoner-of-war camp for Italian prisoners in North Africa, Arrington reported having another transcendent experience after reading The Brothers Karamazov.

[1] Great Basin Kingdom was published through a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, which subsidized publication of books about economic history.

In order to rewrite his dissertation into Great Basin Kingdom, Arrington took a sabbatical 1956–1957 and was granted a fellowship at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

Arrington also noted that pioneers found religious significance in creating farms out of previously wild land, making irrigation central to their way of life.

[7]: 70  Dean L. May and Donald Worster criticized Great Basin Kingdom for overreaching its thesis that organized irrigation could rejuvenate a culture.

[7]: 84  One biographer attributes Arrington's overvaluing Mormon achievements to a lack of empirical studies on pioneer settlements at the time.

[7]: 97  Also in 1959, Arrington wrote an article featured in the first issue of BYU Studies entitled "An Economic Interpretation of 'The Word of Wisdom.

'"[11] The article argued that Brigham Young's enforcement of the Word of Wisdom as a commandment was motivated by a desire to keep cash inside Utah (and not spent on luxury imports).

[7]: 111, 226  William Hartley, Gordon Irving, and Gary Shumway began an oral history program, funded by a grant from the descendants of James Moyle, a Utah politician.

Arrington, Bitton, Allen, and Maureen Beecher[18]: 102  served as a reading committee for the division's writings in place of formal Correlation approval.

[7]: 117  Arrington wanted to avoid the Correlation Program, stating that "I do not think we could determine the truth of what had happened in history by having the Quorum of the Twelve vote on it.

Spies within the department, under the instruction of Mark E. Petersen, compiled what they believed to be heretical statements and passed them along to the Twelve Apostles and ultimately the offender's bishop (local ecclesiastical authority).

[7]: 114  Staff historian D. Michael Quinn published an article in the LDS Church magazine, the Ensign, exploring the origins of the office of presiding bishop, and asserted that Edward Partridge was not the first incumbent.

In a meeting with institute teachers, Ezra Taft Benson, then president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, obliquely criticized some of the terms used in The Story of the Latter-day Saints, like "primitivist" and "communitarian".

[7]: 121  A University of Utah undergraduate wrote a research paper connecting the New Mormon History coming from the Church Division with secularism and the work of anti-Mormon historians Jerald and Sandra Tanner.

A copy of the paper reached the Quorum of the Twelve via Mark E. Petersen, and as a result of the ensuing discussion, several LDS historians were barred from publishing in church sources.

[17]: 18 G. Homer Durham, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, replaced Joseph Anderson as director of the Historical Department in 1977 and began restraining the History Division's activity.

The biography focuses disproportionately on Spry's decision to execute Joe Hill, reflecting Woolley's conservative politics in suppressing labor radicalism.

From Quaker to Latter-day Saint: Bishop Edwin D. Woolley reflect's Cornwall's literary elegance and boldness in "informed speculation".

David Eccles was a polygamist, and the descendants of his two wives, Bertha Jensen in Ogden and Ellen Stoddard in Logan, did not agree about how the biography should be written.

[7]: 156  To appease Harrison, Arrington had Maureen Ursenbach Beecher improve the manuscript's literary style, but the final biography still lacked real criticism of Eccles's business practices.

[2] In 2005,[13] Utah State University created the Leonard J. Arrington Chair in Mormon History and Culture, which was sponsored by more than 45 donors.

[26]: viii Prior to his death, Arrington's long history and family ties influenced his decision to donate his papers to Utah State University.

[12]: 460  After the papers opened to the public in October 2001, a small group of Church Historical Department staff began reading through the collection for over three weeks.

However, USU archivists believed the church could claim ownership only over the Council of Twelve minutes in the papers, less than one-half of one-percent of the total collection.