The writing of history does not occur in a vacuum. The scholarship that went before set the stage for the debates of the present. This is particularly evident as one studies the historiography of Joseph Smith's First Vision. Toward the middle of the twentieth century, Latter-day Saint historians came to understand that they could use research from scholars with opposing viewpoints as a catalyst to propel their own work forward and strive for a more accurate depiction of the past. This disciplinary shift influenced Mormon historical studies of the First Vision.