 | |
List Price: $18.95 | | Publisher: Vintage
Salesrank: 12304
Released: March 13, 2007 |
| Our Price: $11.17 |
| Used Price: $11.20 |
|
| Media: Paperback |
|
Editorial Review:
Founder of the largest indigenous Christian church in American history, Joseph Smith published the 584-page Book of Mormon when he was twenty-three and went on to organize a church, found cities, and attract thousands of followers before his violent death at age thirty-eight. Richard Bushman, an esteemed cultural historian and a practicing Mormon, moves beyond the popular stereotype of Smith as a colorful fraud to explore his personality, his relationships with others, and how he received revelations.
An arresting narrative of the birth of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling also brilliantly evaluates the prophet’s bold contributions to Christian theology and his cultural place in the modern world.
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling Reviews:
Inoculation of the Saints 
2008-10-06 - There is no question that Bushman has done the hard work of researching the life of Joseph Smith. Having read gobs of biographical material on the man, I still learned some important insights about in this book, and more importantly, about the change in "vision" the modern church has 200 years later with regard to their founding prophet and his teachings. Make no mistake--this is a good book, and I recommend it often.
But there is a side to this book that warrants discussion, and I hope it gets it here.
This book serves the church's agenda. With the advent of the internet, information about Joseph Smith is more readily available than ever before, and members of the church can find all manner of unsavory tidbits by simply Googling "Joseph Smith" as they sit down to prepare their Priesthood lesson. Translating with his face in a hat, with the peepstone in the bottom; a penchant for folk magic and treasure seeking; the questionable evolution of polygamy and in particular, the Fanny Alger "afair"; the REAL vision of Zion; the debacle of Zion's Camp. And so on.
The church can no longer keep the "not-so-faithful" history from it's members, and so they were faced with a dilema. How do we acknowledge the reality of Smith's life, without undermining the testimony of countless members of the church? The solution? Ask Richard Bushman to write this book, and provide not only the validation of those "unsavory tidbits", but follow them up with enough spin that it leaves the members satisfied that, although things are not as they thought they were, they are still okay.
That's called inoculation. You expose them to a modified version of the virus, which might make them uncomfortable, but it won't kill them. And once they get over it, then nothing they read on the internet or anywhere else will again damage their testimony.
I have written elsewhere on the internet page after page after page, highlighting the spin of Rough Stone Rolling, but I'll cite here a single, glaring example. In Chapter 3: Translation, Bushman says, "After 1828, Joseph could no longer see that magic might have prepared him to believe in a revelation of gold plates and translation with a stone. It did not occur to him that without magic his family might have scoffed at his story of Moroni, as did the minister who rejected the First Vision. Magic had played its part and now could be cast aside." He goes on to describe folk magic as a "prepatory gospel", without which, the REAL gospel could not have come forth.
Are you KIDDING ME!?
I am familiar with the phrase, "God works in mysterious ways," but Bushman is suggesting that God works with the occult to prepare His prophets, because otherwise, God Himself is not going to be convincing enough when He taps his boy, Joe, on the shoulder and says, "Hey, I have gold plates."
But if the membership is prepared to believe that folk magic is a "prepatory gospel," then they no longer have to worry their "pretty little heads" about Joseph's money digging, or the use of peep stones.
The book is replete with examples such as this, excusing away the many versions of the First Vision, the obvious conundrum with the Book of Abraham having been derived from a common funerary papyrus, the scandals of Fanny Alger and the Kirtland Anti-Banking Society, etc. So, while it is meticulously researched on the one hand, be very aware that Bushman provides an "interpretation" that is couched in that research and makes it sound like it is sound reasoning supported by the tenets of the church.
It's not. It's spin.
Okay. Now, I know how these reviews work, so feel free to shred this and mark it "Unhelpful" because I know many who have come here to find out about this book are not going to care for this review. I suspect it will be relegated quickly to dustbin of "unhelpful" reviews. But I suggest it MIGHT be more helpful to discuss this, rather than just trash me.
Excellent book 
2008-10-03 - I'm active in the LDS Church, and could see how this book might cause some people some concern, but if you recognize that Joseph Smith was a man, which Bushman does, it's very insightful and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Did not negatively affect my belief in the church or that Joseph Smith was who he claimed to be.
Review of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling
2008-09-02 - I believe this book is an excellent read for anyone interested in a fair, factual presentation of Joseph Smith and the early Mormon Church. The author is fair in presenting both the good and bad regarding one of the very influential American religious leaders. I would encourage both Mormons and non-Mormons to read this book. Mormons will find much that they are not taught in Sunday School and, yet, their faith might be strengthened, if they realize that Joseph Smith was a human with many faults. Those not belonging to the Mormon Church will learn much about the early years of our country and rather strange things about the early, formative Mormon Church.
Difficult Read, but Very Enlightening
2008-08-31 - I am LDS. A big Joseph Smith Fan. The book was a difficult read for many of the chapters. Still the book was very insightful of Joseph's day and the cultural setting his life was lived in. It clearly demonstrated how imperfect of a man he was but how he truley was a mouth-piece of God the Father.
A Historical and Biographical Tour De Force
2008-07-31 - Dr. Richard Bushman is to be commended for writing one of the best, most balanced biographies of perhaps the most controversial man in American history. The fact that Mormon Mullahs and rabidly hateful Mormon detractors both dislike this book sez something good. Dr. Bushman's work is as objective as possible without the polemics, charactor assassinations, deifications, etc. that are found in other works. For this, Dr. Bushman deserves 5 stars and the congratulations of all open minded persons.
I started reading history at quite an early age, and Mormon history was always one of my topics of fascination. I remember Joseph Fielding Smith, as Church Historian, wrote a book entitled "Essentials In Church History", and other titles as well. I was surprised, even as a newly returned missionary, at the excessively defensive posture taken in these earlier books. Further, I have read more controversial books from the Mormon perspective, including the hate pieces written by Sandra and Gerald Tanner, as well as the disingenuous Brodie. None of these rang of truth or were very satisfying. This book does ring of truth largely because Dr. Bushman presents the cold hard facts and lets the reader come to his/her own conslusions.
Dr. Bushman does not confuse Smith family history with Church history, one of the bigger mistakes made in previous Church sponsored works--particularly as late as the 1970s. Church Historians often were members of the Smith family. Dr. Bushman professionally steps back and looks at Joseph Smith as a man, which to me makes him much more remarkable than a person to be deified.
This book has much to make Mormon Mullahs uncomfortable. Certainly, Joseph Smith Senior's inability to provide for the family because of drunkeness answers many questions not previously answered, let alone addressed. The folk magic episodes, the temper, the plural wives, etc, are not ignored. For that reason, I wonder how some Mormon critics reviewing this book can honestly charge that Dr. Bushman is sweeping controversial matters under the rug. Unless they are reading documents produced by Mark Hoffman, I don't think there is any controversy regarding Joseph Smith that Dr. Bushman doesn't address in a forthright and honest manner. If there is, they should articulate such things instead of only alluding to the "whitewash" by Dr. Bushman.
During the 1940's, Fawn Brodie was given access to Church Archives by the Church hierarchy because she represented she would be writing a faithful biography of Joseph Smith. Instead, she made her fame and fortune at Joseph's expense by denouncing him as a sex addict and charlatan/fraud. She used very questionable/flimsy material to support these conclusions...she frankly was quite leading and dishonest in her conclusions. Later, it was no surprise that Brodie was slammed by fellow historians who previously had applauded her assasination of Joseph Smith when she tried the same tactics on Thomas Jefferson.
I would recommend this book to anyone for the integrity of Dr. Bushman's writings, warts and all. Best of all, the reader doesn't feel manipulated as one does after reading Brodie's book.
