LAUSR

church-owned Brigham Young University—a sobering reminder of the power that institutions can exercise as they attempt to control scholarly narratives. While the specifics will be most valuable to Mormon-studies specialists, Hicks offers an insightful account of the struggle scholars face while striving for dispassionate objectivity when working on topics in which they feel deep personal investment. Although Spencer Kimball’s Record Collection includes important scholarly research, it is written for a general audience, with minimal theoretical scaffolding or academic jargon. It is an easy, compelling read. Readers who are specialists in musicology might wish for more introductory context to better situate Hicks’s findings within broader scholarly conversations. The volume could be accessible to a broader readership if it offered more exposition of the LDS historical events, figures, beliefs, and practices that it addresses. Hicks’s forthright discussion of his own Mormon belief helps frame the book’s subjective perspective, although he occasionally writes as if his readers share his faith. The title of the book, which will be inscrutable to anyone outside the world of Mormonism, suggests that Signature Books may have assumed a mostly Mormon readership as well. Nonetheless, the book makes a valuable contribution to scholarship in musicology, hymnology, and Mormon studies, bringing a contemporary update to research on music in Mormonism and adding important new perspectives on race and gender.