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Preview Bring Them to Zion: The 1856 Handcart Emigration Organization, Leadership, and Issues June 27 2025
Bring Them to Zion:
The 1856 Handcart Emigration Organization, Leadership, and Issues
by Don H Smith with the assistance of Mark C. Austin
Bring Them to Zion: The 1856 Handcart Emigration Organization, Leadership, and Issues offers a deeply researched and meticulously documented account of one of the most ambitious and controversial episodes in Latter-day Saint pioneer history. Drawing on original sources and archival materials, the authors reconstruct the organizational challenges and decision-making processes that led to the infamous 1856 handcart migration. This emigration effort, driven by faith and constrained by logistics, sought to bring impoverished European converts across the American plains with minimal resources—relying on handcarts instead of ox-drawn wagons. The book details how unforeseen weather, financial limitations, logistical miscalculations, and divided leadership all coalesced into tragedy for many participants.
Going beyond recounting events, Bring Them to Zion examines the motivations, planning, and execution behind the handcart experiment, and it explores the differences and cooperation between Church leaders in Utah, Europe, and the eastern United States, and investigates the internal politics and systemic missteps that affected thousands of emigrants. The narrative sheds new light on Brigham Young’s vision, the administrative roles of Franklin D. Richards and other key figures, and the broader context of mid-19th century transatlantic and frontier migration. This work is essential reading for anyone interested in Mormon history, American religious movements, or the broader story of westward expansion.
FLASH SALE: Award-winning Latter-day Saint books — 30% off retail prices! September 23 2020
We are proud of our authors and books! Expand your collection of biographies and narrative histories, anthologies and personal essays, and scripture scholarship with these award-winning titles below. Now 30% off through the end of September.
Sale ends Wednesday, 9/30/2020*
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2020 Best Biography, JWHA $24.95 |
2018 Best Anthology, JWHA $22.95 |
2017 Best International History, MHA $39.95 |
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2016 Best Literary Criticism, AML $18.95 |
2016 Best Religious Non-fiction, AML $20.95 |
2016 Best Biography, JWHA $39.95 |
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2015 Best Religious Non-fiction, AML $34.95 |
2015 Best Book Award, MHA $32.95 |
2015 Best International History, MHA $24.95 |
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2014 Best Religious Non-fiction, AML $20.95 |
2014 Best International Book, MHA $34.95 |
2013 Best International History, MHA $29.95 |
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2012 Best Biography, MHA $31.95 |
2012 Best Criticism Award, AML $34.95 |
2011 Best Book Award, MHA & JWHA $34.95 |
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2007 Best Book Award, JWHA $31.95 |
2003 Best Biography, MHA $32.95 |
1988 Best Book Award, MHA $31.95 |
*For international print orders, email order@koffordbooks.com. Subject to available supply.