editor's page, The

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Winter 2003

An analysis of two poems that criticized Mormon marriage doctrine, an examination of an exceptional grade school marching band, and an assessment of the sociological background of a lynching. This issue of the journal of the Illinois State Historical Society certainly offers a variety of topics over which one might stew. The authors of all three articles ask you, the reader, to suspend your usual beliefs about common historical subjects and to rethink your usual conclusions; they present you with a series of fascinating alternative interpretations.

In his article about the authors of two poems from 1844 about the theological underpinnings of Joseph Smith's call for plural marriage in Nauvoo, Gary Bergera explains how you might gain a better historical understanding of the roots of the Mormon religion. He shows that the poetry says more about the history of the period than it does about the Latter Day Saints.

Phillip M. Hash's work on the Joliet Grade School band of the early twentieth century is a carefully-crafted inspection of the role of marching bands in the organization of American civic life during the period. He relates the support given to its members to the development of pride in the entire community.

E.A. Schwartz, in his article about the 1918 lynching of Robert Prager in Collinsville, argues that the event was not motivated solely by anti-German fervor during the First World War. Instead, he presents you with the possibility that the incident may also have been precipitated by the patriotic aspirations of union leaders.

Each of the articles offers you much food for thought. All-in-all, they make a satisfying historical meal.