> NYRB recently had a review on two new books on the Mormons Mountain Meadows
> massacre.
> Richard Abanes has a big new book on the history of Mormonism.
> Michael Pugliese
The NYRB article would be "The Mormon Murder Case," a review by Caroline Fraser of _Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Masacre at Mountain Meadows_ by Will Bagley and _Red Water_, a novel by Judith Freeman, in the Nov. 21 issue.
Richard Abanes is a right wing Xian fundamentalist, and his big book, _One Nation Under Gods_ is informed by that perspective. One of its principle intentions appears to be to provide Abanes's co-religionists with polemical ammunition.
There's a journalistic account, mainly focused on contemporary Mormonism but giving some historical background, by Richard and Joan K. Ostling, called _Mormon America: The Power and the Promise_. I haven't read it, but have been told that it's a good primer if you know nothing of Mormonism.
There's a new biography of Joseph Smith by Robert V. Remini. Remini is a respected historian, and the author of the standard bio of Andrew Jackson. Another study by a well-regarded academic historian is _Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism_ by Richard L. Bushman. Bushman is an expert on early New England, and is particularly well-qualified to trace the relationship of early Mormonism to the revivalism of the Second Great Awakening. (His book _From Puritan to Yankee: Character and the Social Order in Connecticut, 1690-1765_ is one of my all-time favorites).
michael at ecst.csuchico.edu writes:
> there was a book -- I think called Nobody Knows My Name -- maybe 24-30
> years old. It must be good since Mormans had it removed from most
> libraries and I never heard of it again. Let me know if you find it.
That would probably be _No Man Knows My History_ by Fawn Brodie, a "psychobiography" of Joseph Smith. It appears to be still in print. I think that Brodie was herself of Mormon background. She wrote a "psychobiography" of Richard Nixon as well, which as I recall was raked over the coals pretty thoroughly.
Jacob Conrad