Joseph Smith, The Mormon Prophet - The Strange History of a Farm Boy Who Started a Religion and Somehow Got a Very Complicated Biography #1008133

Joseph Smith was a farm boy who claimed to have visions, translated sacred plates, gathered followers, founded a new religious movement, built communities, and eventually became one of the most controversial religious figures in nineteenth-century America.

But how does a young man from rural New York become the founder of a religion that would grow into a worldwide movement?
Joseph Smith, The Mormon Prophet explores the remarkable and complicated history of Smith's life—from his early years and religious environment to the First Vision, the Book of Mormon, the emergence of the Latter Day Saint movement, persecution and migration, Nauvoo, political power, plural marriage, and the violent events that ended his life.

Along the way, the biography examines the people, beliefs, conflicts, institutions, and historical circumstances surrounding Joseph Smith. It also considers the competing accounts and interpretations that have shaped his reputation among believers, critics, historians, and generations of curious readers.

This is the story of a nineteenth-century religious experiment that refused to remain small—and of the man at its center, whose biography somehow manages to involve visions, angels, sacred texts, frontier America, political ambition, theological controversy, and enough historical complications to keep biographers busy for generations.

Whether you approach Joseph Smith as a prophet, religious founder, controversial historical figure, or simply one of the strangest characters of early American religious history, his story offers a fascinating window into the turbulent world of nineteenth-century America.