Matthew Harris contextualizes the religious and political thoughts of Ezra Taft Benson, ninth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Watchman on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right. Harris's book is the first monograph to examine how and why Benson's political views developed from his early employment as an agricultural cooperative chairperson, to his call to the Latter-day Saint apostleship, through his service as president of the LDS church. Written for scholars and interested Latter-day Saint readers, Harris's book is essential to understand how Benson, Utahns, and Latter-day Saints became ardent Republicans in the United States.
Neatly split into five sections, Watchman on the Tower is very much a biography. In the first section, Harris presents Benson's upbringing in rural Idaho, including his quick ascension in agricultural leadership in Utah and throughout the United States. In the second chapter,...
