A management consultant, MacKinnon is a historian of the American West, Mormon history, and Utah history[5] who was described by Richard E. Turley in 2018 as "the acknowledged expert"[6] and by Thomas G. Alexander in 2019 as "the most knowledgable authority"[7] on what was known in its time as the American War of the Mormons' Succession (or more recently "the Utah War"), a topic of which MacKinnon began his study as a Yale sophomore history major in 1958.
[8] In 2018, MacKinnon presented the 35th Juanita Brooks Lecture at Dixie State University: "Across the Desert in 1858: Thomas L. Kane’s Mediating Mission and the Mormon Women who Made it Possible.
"[9] As of 2010[update], MacKinnon lived in Santa Barbara with his wife, Patricia.
[10] MacKinnon has published over thirty journal articles on the history of the American West.
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