Leonard J. Arrington wrote several books on Mormon history and the American West, including Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900 (1958) and, co-authored with Davis Bitton, The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints (1979). A regular contributor to many scholarly journals, he received a number of awards. Professor Arrington taught at North Carolina State, UCLA, Utah State University, and as the Lemuel Redd Professor of Western History at Brigham Young University. He served as Director of the History Division of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
