This is an excellent, thorough book on the purity system of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the excommunications of the “September Six” and many others for their violations of that purity system. I bought the book out of personal interest, but I think it will be professionally valuable as well. I knew much of what was in the book, but what I didn’t know was important, and I am grateful for the volume and hope that many will read it to learn about this important period in Mormon history. As Patterson notes, though, it’s not just history; her conclusion reflecting on how these episodes have their echoes in the present is especially good.

• The September Six and the Struggle for the Soul of Mormonism
• Sara M. Patterson
• September Six
• D. Michael Quinn
• Lavina Fielding Anderson
• Mormonism
• BYU
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints