The Chief: An Administrative Biography of Fred M. Smith

by Paul M. Edwards

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 083090526X
• ISBN13: 9780830905263
• Release Date: November 1988
• Publisher: Herald Pub House
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

The Biography of a Unique 20th Century Mormon Leader

Frederick M. Smith was the president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints--now the Community of Christ--between 1915 and 1948. Paul M. Edwards' biography of him was the first of a projected series of administrative biographies of Reorganization presidents, and it analyzed its subject as "a visionary for the RLDS people who otherwise might not have moved so quickly from their own provincialism to embrace the changes sweeping America." Edwards concluded in this book that "Under Fred M. the RLDS church became a modern church." Edwards was meticulous with his research and writing and created a rounded and useful portrait of a man of striking paradoxes. While not a definitive study, the book went far toward interpreting a major figure for the Reorganization and placing the movement more in the context of larger religious trends.