SECRETS of a Mormon Insider & Historian - D. Michael Quinn's "Chosen Path" w/ Moshe Quinn | Ep. 1866

D. Michael Quinn's "Chosen Path": How a Leading Mormon Historian's Memoir Reshapes Our Understanding of Faith and Identity

When D. Michael Quinn died in 2021, he left behind decades of groundbreaking historical work on Mormonism, from his meticulous studies of Joseph Smith's early polygamy to his documentation of post-Manifesto plural marriage. But what many don't know is that Quinn also left behind an intimate memoir that remained unpublished until recently. The release of Chosen Path, discussed in detail on the Mormon Stories Podcast, offers something historians and members rarely encounter: a candid, first-person account from one of Mormon history's most influential scholars about the personal struggles that shaped his scholarly vision.

This memoir matters because it forces a reckoning with a fundamental question: How do the hidden lives of historians shape the history they write? Quinn spent his career uncovering what institutions preferred to keep secret. Yet his own identity was carefully concealed for much of his life. Understanding that paradox, and how Quinn navigated it, provides crucial context for evaluating both his legacy and the broader relationship between personal authenticity and historical truth-seeking in Mormon studies.

Background: Quinn's Rise as Mormon History's Unflinching Chronicler

D. Michael Quinn emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as an anomaly in Mormon historical scholarship. While church-approved historians tended toward celebratory narratives, Quinn investigated uncomfortable historical territory: the complex reality of Joseph Smith's plural marriages, the continued practice of polygamy after the 1890 Manifesto, and, perhaps most provocatively, evidence that women may have held and exercised priesthood authority in early Mormon practice.

His academic credentials were impeccable. He held faculty positions at Brigham Young University and was embedded within Mormon institutional life in ways few historians achieved. This access granted him extraordinary privileges: President Spencer W. Kimball allowed Quinn to examine his personal journals. Quinn had a seat at pivotal moments in modern Mormon history and the intellectual standing to document them.