“Yet another volume on Mormon prophet Joseph Smith,” one may think in glancing at the title of this book. Indeed, it is. But it is also a landmark volume in a series of publications on the founder of Mormonism, a world religion born on American soil. In this book, Mormon historian Ronald O. Barney, a former senior archivist and historian at the LDS Church History Department, revisits the prophet’s writings, all the pertinent documents, manuscripts, articles, and publications about him, and the historical environment in which he lived. Through a painstaking, impartial cross-examination of these sources as well as an exhaustive investigation of the historical evolution of the study of the prophet, Barney produces an exceptional reading of Joseph Smith as a man, a prophet, and a visionary along with the unfolding historiography surrounding his figure. He executes this with the care, precision, concern, open mindedness, a critical stance, and...
University of California Press