I was expecting something more along the lines that Sister Dewey wrote about Gordon B. Hinckley. This book was more of an analysis of the Church with David O. McKay as a point of reference. The first and the last chapters were more of the biography that I was looking for. Perhaps if it was written more linearly rather than categorically, I might have been satisfied. Part of the problem for me was that some things were repeated as they crossed over into the history of multiple topics (eg. the chapter on communism, the chapter on politics).
Some things that surprised me were similar to what others have already mentioned: McKay's tolerance of others' viewpoints, the collisions of opinions between General Authorities (while reading the book I wondered if these clashes made it difficult for some of them to be involved with certain prayers in the temple), Ernest Wilkinson ('nuf said), Ezra Taft Benson's persistance in certain matters and McKay's change of decision from Benson's influence. Some of the authors' depictions made the leadership in the church appear to me like the top level management of a large corporation.
I look forward to talking with my Dad about this book and his recollections of this period. Like Peter, I wonder if the members of the Church viewed things as Miss Middlemis did. Given her proximity to things, I'm sure that they didn't.
A question I have, and maybe one of you can add some insight, is about a comment the authors made in the chapter about The Church and Blacks. The book claims that Joseph Smith ordained some blacks to the priesthood, but the authors left no supporting reference.
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I had heard the same thing before about Joseph Smith ordaining a few black men. Sister Susan Easton Black may have been the one I heard it from.
The case I had been familiar with was that of Elijah Abel. He was baptised and ordained in the 1830s, became a Seventy in Nauvoo and eventually went West with the Saints.
A more challenging story is that of Walker Lewis who (at least the Wikipedia entry gives the impression) was a faithful Saint, but who was evidently ostracized due to the fact that his son (also a member of the church, although unordained to the Priesthood) was married to a white woman.
One of my professors at BYU wrote a series of fictionalized accounts of two real-life Pioneer-era black Saints (one of whom is Elijah Abel; the other is Jane Manning James). The stories are based on historical accounts, journals, etc. It's a three part series called Standing on the Promises. Her co-author, Darius Gray was, IIRC, the first Branch President of the African-American branch that formed in SLC right after the Proclamation in 1978.
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