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In this new book, Dan Vogel takes us deep inside the inner workings of Joseph Smith’s Ohio and Missouri years, illuminating what drove Smith and animated his growing number of followers. Vogel narrates the day-to-day events in the Mormon prophet’s life, then steps back with his customary incisiveness to analyze and deconstruct the changing nature of the church Smith founded. Events of the era—the developing priesthood, the emergence of administrative offices, the tarring and feathering of Smith, divine revelations, the settlement of Zion, the Army of Israel, the Book of Abraham, Smith’s relationship with Fanny Alger and his fallout with Oliver Cordery, the Kirtland Safety Society, and the Mormon War in Missouri—are all detailed in lively fashion and framed in the context of their time.
Utilizing modern-day understandings of human nature and behavior, Vogel provides context to Smith’s life and fits more pieces of the prophet puzzle into place. His depictions of Smith are insightful, nuanced, and sympathetic, rejecting two-dimensional portrayals that insist the founder of Mormonism was either God’s seer and revelator or a knowing fraud out to fleece his flock. This book is the gold standard by which future historians will measure our understanding of the Kirtland and Missouri era, Smith’s expanding theology, his commitment to establishing Zion on earth, and his use of charisma to enthrall his followers.
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