Jim Johnson

The classic groundbreaking book on the MMM

Revisado: 06-04-22

Even though there are more modern and comprehensive books on the subject, there is still a lot of value in this version. I would definitely recommend including this book in your reading list if you really want to understand the massacre. in the other books, there is commentary about this one and will Bagley for example is very clear that his book is written more as an extension of this one, not a revision.

if you are only going to read one, will Bagley's blood of the prophets was the best one. it includes a lot of important context of Mormon history that are very useful for understanding the contemporary context. it is also written in the best storytelling style so has a better entertainment value. it hooked me really well and is one of the best books that I have read.

I do however recommend reading Ronald Walker and Richard turley's massacre at mountain Meadows because it adds a great amount of detail and includes sources that were only available to Mormons.

importantly to note, the books do not all agree with the conclusions. they are mostly the same regarding statements of facts, but when it comes to speculation (which it must to some extent because we don't have enough evidence) will Bagley concludes that Brigham Young ordered the massacre, while Brooks and Walker and turley conclude that Brigham could not have ordered it, but was accessory after the fact and probably knew the story pretty early on. as the question about whether Brigham Young ordered the massacre is a major point, it is absolutely worth getting the different perspectives.

suggested reading order:

1. Blood of the Prophets by Will Bagley
2. The mountain Meadows massacre by Juanita Brooks
3. the massacre at mountain Meadows by Ronald Walker, and Richard turley

after that if you still want to learn more, Juanita Brooks wrote a biography on John d Lee that is enlightening. there is also a biography about Bishop Philip klingensmith that is very interesting. these are not available as audiobooks, but you can get them in dead tree or Kindle. I have heard that the Kindle has passable text to speech that can turn it into an audiobook of sorts, but I find Kindle to be such a restrictive format that I don't do it. only certain kindle devices are capable of the text to speech, which I find very frustrating. if there wasn't DRM in place you could use any text to speech software, but Amazon aggressively removes that option from its customers, which I find frustrating and distasteful, and don't want to support it.

overall I really enjoyed Juanita Brooks version. it was very enlightening and the things that she chose to focus on are very relevant. while Brooks was a believing Mormon, this book is the work of a historian. during the time in which she published this, it must have taken an enormous amount of bravery. she fully expected to be facing a disciplinary council and possibly excommunication for what she put in this book. however her dedication to the cause of truth is most important. in the end she was not disciplined, and I believe a big reason for that is that her history is unassailable and thorough, and extremely fair. she is a tremendously gifted writer and historian, and I wish that there were more of her books available on audible, especially her biography of John d Lee. highly recommend

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A happy accident!

Revisado: 06-02-22

I happened upon this book by chance, and am so glad I did! I'm a big fan of early Mormon history, and there aren't many that I haven't read yet. I even read the one about Lyman wight's Texas colony (the one that bishop miller joins after leaving the saints in winter quarters).

I mention that so you can better know that know my interests when evaluating my review.

this book is definitely worth a read, and challenged me with some things I didn't already know! you can tell that the author has done a significant amount of primary research, (for example reading all of John d Lee's extensive journals), and it really shows. she pulled done interesting content out that wasn't well known and wrote a book full of new stuff that most people wouldn't already know.

I also deeply appreciated the neutral scholarly tone. things that might embarrass the church (or harm a fragile testimony) unfortunately in this genre often get omitted, or worse spun into something they're not. I don't have the foggiest idea about the authors personal religion and beliefs, and I mean that as a great compliment!

I strongly suspect that I'll be giving this book a second listen, and recommend it for your if you're interested in early Mormon church history

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Good, but pales in comparison to Turner's book

Revisado: 04-22-22

this book is loaded with some great info, and had I read it first I'd probably rate it highly. however, John g Turner's book on Brigham Young was just so good that I found myself really disappointed in this one. Turner goes very chronologically and really tells a great story of a real man. the reader is able to learn and grow along with Brigham to see how and why he does many of the things he did. this book on the other hand, while being mostly chronological, it skips around with into quite a bit. but mostly it just doesn't tell the great story. it doesn't feel like a novel, more like a history textbook.

to sum it up, I'd say this book feels more like a history class with dates and names thrown at you without telling the real story behind it. Turner's book is more like an exciting novel (though loaded with footnotes. I bought a hard copy also).

I do actually recommend reading this if you're really into Brigham Young. you'll get some new and good info about him, albeit from a believer's perspective that nearly always gives Brigham the benefit of the doubt. I would do Turner's book first though so you have the background and context for this one.

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Decent story, unbearable narrator

Revisado: 04-08-22

the story was interesting, although there were a few areas where incorrect or inaccurate things were said.

For example, when discussing Joseph Smith's gold plates, the author says that in Joseph's time he probably didn't show the plates to anyone because he worried about theft. however it's extremely well documented by Joseph himself that the reason for the secrecy was because the Lord said so. also, he did end up "showing" them to some witnesses. Joseph was quite obviously concerned about theft, but I doubt he had anything to fear from his wife Emma, or his scribes. if it was truly just about theft, why keep them on the table but covered with a cloth?

regarding the narrator, I had to turn off the book several times because the narrator became too unbearable. it sounds like he is trying to talk super quietly as though he is recording in a library and doesn't want to disturb other patrons. the volume is increased electronically so the volume of the speech itself is not a problem, but the effect of talking that way is an absurdly flat, uninterested in the material sound that is just very grating. it is so blatant that it has to be intentional. I suspect that the narrator thinks it sounds good, but it does not. on the plus side, if you are listening while trying to fall asleep, it will definitely help you sleep :-)

overall the book is interesting and worth a read. the same material is covered by other bigger books, but if you are interested in an overview or don't want to go for a big scholarly book like Richard bushman's rough Stone rolling, John g Turner's Brigham Young, or Laura Thatcher Ulrich's house full of females, this is a decent way to get the material.

one important note, is that the book also covers early Mormon history somewhat, such as the story of Joseph Smith and the translation of the gold plates into the book of Mormon. this is not necessarily a problem, but not something I expected in a book about the Mormon trail.

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Unique information and well researched

Revisado: 04-07-22

The story kind of jumps around a bit which can make it hard to follow, but overall it was excellent. Highly recommended.

the narrator mispronounces a bunch of Mormon names repeatedly, which gets quite aggravating as they're used hundreds of times. nephi is pronounced like "knee-fi" not "neff-ee" and Moroni is not "moron-ee" (like macaroni). nearly every professional narrator gets these words wrong in the same way, and it shocks me that a professional level job could be this way. do they never think to ask the author, or even just a Mormon?

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awesome deep dive into this oft neglected period

Revisado: 03-29-22

though written by a believer, this book is wonderfully comprehensive, honest, and thorough. it has a place on my shelf with other greats like bushman's rough stone rolling, Turner's Brigham Young biography, Bagley's blood of the prophets, McBride's Joseph Smith for president, and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's a house full of females.

fascinating history, great story, and most importantly fair and accurate. will definitely do a re read in the future.

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Incredible look at a fascinating time in history

Revisado: 03-11-22

I've read many books about Joseph Smith and early Mormon history, and most of them have spent some time on the presidential campaign. However, there was a tremendous amount of stuff that I didn't know.

This book did a great job at presenting a lot of material in an entertaining way. I'm pretty good at sniffing out an author's bias, and particularly with a book about politics you would expect that to be difficult to conceal entirely. however the author did a great job with this. there were a couple of tips of the hand, especially towards the end, but if you weren't looking for them you'd never notice.

The author did a great job at presenting the material in a fair and scholarly way. I would recommend this book to anybody with an interest in Mormon history, or even early 19th century history. people don't realize that Joseph s sat in the Whitehouse and talked to president Van Buren. he corresponded with great and powerful leaders. he even got a home visit from John Quincy Adams!

two thumbs up from me.

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incredible! best book yet on nauvoo

Revisado: 03-03-22

I've read nearly every book available on nauvoo and early Mormonism, and this is the best. extremely well written and impeccably researched. neither pro or anti Mormon, just as history should be done. the book covers basically every controversial thing, but does so fairly and liberally with direct quotes. can not recommend highly enough.

don't be scared away by complaints about the narrator. he did an amazing job, and pronunciation of "nauvoo" , while being slightly off, was not that bad and became unnoticeable to me quickly. I'm glad I didn't let that stop me. I loved the narrator and felt his voice and talking style were great and really added to the story.

it's rare to have a book that I look forward to resuming each day as much as this one, and always a bit bitter sweet when it's over. if you have any interest in history, get this book!

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Carl Hart is a hero for writing this book

Revisado: 12-02-21

Carl Hart is a hero for writing this book. I hope everyone who reads the book spreads the message facts wide and far.

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This book finished off the last of my faith

Revisado: 11-06-21

This book finished off the last vestiges of the faith I so desperately wanted to cling to.

The confidence and eloquence with which Metaxas writes gave me so much optimism that this book would live up to the bold claims in the description. However If Eric took even ten minutes to listen to some of atheists like Richard Dawkins explain the scientific arguments, he would realize that by asserting that the scientific belief of atheists is that cells randomly emerged from the primordial soup, he misunderstands himself into the greatest example of a strawman argument that I think I've ever encountered. No biologist believes we randomly went from soup to cells, and for at least a hundred years that hasn't been a serious possibilty. Natural selection, including the development of cells, is the complete opposite of random. Please read "the God Delusion" for a clear expansion of this concept. If you can't stomach the abrasive approach of Dawkins I completely understand that, you can find the same material in almost any course on biology or evolution. The Great courses are full of great titles but I especially loved "the origin and evolution of earth" by Robert Hazen. There is also an audiobook by the same author covering similar material called "the story of Earth". There is definitely a block of unknown between how we get from amino acids to a self replicator, but the jump is nowhere near the magnitude of unlikely that would make for a compelling book about how modern science proves there's a creator by exposing the extremely unlikely odds.

I gave the book two stars because the prose really is quite elegant, and many of the scientific explanations were accurate and well articulated. However I was torn because the parts that were wrong were the critical points, which undermines the main message of the book.

The author's reputation and the bold claims in the description of the book made me so hopeful that this book could rescue my dying faith. Unfortunately, the content has left me depressed and resigned that science is on the side of atheism.

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esto le resultó útil a 9 personas