Thomas Glen Alexander[1] (born August 8, 1935)[2] is an American historian and academic who is a professor emeritus[3] at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, where he was also Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr.
[2] While in Logan, Alexander first met Leonard Arrington, who was serving in the LDS Church's university stake presidency.
He listed Louis C. Midgley and David E. Bohn among the traditionalists who describe New Mormon Historians as positivists.
Alexander stated that this is a miscategorization, because New Mormon Historians usually accepted spiritual experiences like Joseph Smith's visions, rather than attributing them to mental illness or fabrication as a positivist might.
Alexander asserts that Woodruff was "...arguably the third most important figure in all of LDS Church history after Joseph Smith ... and Brigham Young."
While other LDS and western historians may disagree with the ranking, his work provides a careful study of a very important leader in the emerging Mormon faith.
[15] Writing for Sunstone magazine, Kenneth L. Cannon II called the book "one of the two or three best and most important biographies of nineteenth-century Church leaders.
He has won numerous awards for his work, including Mormonism in Transition and Things in Heaven and Earth.