Missionary Interests addresses an important but neglected aspect of historical scholarship: Mormon Missions and the interactions of Mormon and Protestant missionary enterprises. The volume is divided into an introduction and eleven chapters written by historians with different specialties, including Protestant missions, Mormon missions, religion and politics, global women’s history, Asian Christianity, transnational religious history, and race and ethnicity. Although not all chapters emphasize a comparative lens, one of the book’s most compelling contributions is showing how Protestant and Mormon missions often developed strategies, methods, and goals in qualified cooperation and competition.

While studies of Catholic and Protestant missions have been produced for decades, Missionary Interests’ juxtaposition of Mormon and Protestant missionary enterprises and expansionist projects offers an innovative and helpful pathway for future research projects. It reminds scholars of the importance of the intersections of Mormon and Protestant histories and how such intersections present exciting research opportunities.

In addition to the collection’s comparative contributions, chapters offer helpful insight into matters concerning each tradition separately. David Hollinger’s chapter on US missionary struggle for symbolic capital worldwide, Kathryn Gin Lum’s reflection on US Protestant views on land and soil, Jeffrey Cannon’s study on Latter-day Saint missions in Africa, and David Golding’s piece on the challenges of Mormon missiology provide a few examples of how Missionary Interests’ contributions go beyond comparing and contrasting Protestants and Mormons. The book also speaks to topics independent from its innovative comparative approach.

One wonders how a deeper engagement with World Christianity scholarship could inform the rich historical research included in Missionary Interests. Although a few chapters use research produced by scholars of World Christianity, the book generally reproduces the commonly limited interaction between historians of US religion and World Christianity scholars. Despite this minor observation, Missionary Interests is an innovative volume that highlights potential futures for research on the history of Protestants and Mormons. Scholars of US religious history should read the book and consider using chapters to teach US religious history.