Joseph Smith's Gold Plates: A Cultural History

by Richard Lyman Bushman Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Overview

According to Joseph Smith, in September of 1823 an angel appeared to him and directed him to a hill near his home. Buried there Smith found a box containing a stack of thin metal sheets, gold in color and covered with what appeared to be ancient engravings. Exactly four years later, the angel instructed Smith to translate the plates into English. When the text was published, a new religion was born. The plates have had a long and active life, and the question of their reality has hovered over them from the beginning. Months before the Book of Mormon was published, newspapers began reporting on the discovery of a Golden Bible. Within a few years, over a hundred articles had appeared. Critics denounced Smith as a charlatan for claiming to have a wondrous object that he refused to show while believers countered by pointing to witnesses who said they saw the plates. Two hundred years later, the mystery of the gold plates remains. In this book, renowned historian of Mormonism Richard Lyman Bushman offers a cultural history of the gold plates. Bushman examines how the plates have been imagined by both believers and critics-and by treasure-seekers, novelists, artists, scholars, and others-from Smith's first encounter with them to the present. Why have they been remembered, and how have they been used? And why do they remain objects of fascination to this day? By examining these questions, Bushman sheds new light on Mormon history and the role of enchantment in the modern world.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

09/11/2023

Historian Bushman (Joseph Smith) offers a meticulous study of the gold plates that Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, reported discovering near his home in Palmyra, N.Y., in 1823. Bushman considers the perspectives of both believers and skeptics concerning the plates’ existence. At the time, according to Bushman, generally contemptuous public commentary referred to them as a “Golden Bible” (though Smith himself rarely described the plates as being made from gold) and considered Smith’s assertion of their existence to undermine his credibility even more than his claim of visitations from the angel Moroni (who guided him to the plates’ original location buried in a stone box on the side of a hill). Among his followers, on the other hand, belief in the existence of the plates became a litmus test of Mormon faith. For readers uninitiated in Mormon culture, Bushman clearly explains the significance of the proofs that members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints laid out over the course of the 19th century to establish the legitimacy of the plates, including the publication of accounts by 11 people who saw them during their 21 months in Smith’s possession (after which, he attested, he returned them to Moroni). Thoroughly researched and accessibly written, this is sure to be considered a definitive work on the subject. (Aug.)

From the Publisher

"In the tradition of his magisterial biography of Mormonism's founder, Richard Bushman's history of Joseph Smith's Gold Plates begins with two earnest questions: how do we make sense of our subject in the context of its time and place in history? And how does that nineteenth-century culture so marvelously elucidated ultimately fail to fully explain the enigma-in this case those baffling gold plates? We see here a virtuoso historian at work who is not afraid to share his wonder as much as his learning. That combination of historical command and intellectual humility makes Bushman a joy to read." — Terryl Givens, Professor of Religion and Literature Emeritus, University of Richmond

"Joseph Smith's Gold Plates is a riveting cultural history of American religion's most enigmatic objects. Richard Bushman has long been known as the leading voice in Mormon studies for his skillful research, incisive analysis, and stylish prose. This book is true to form. For anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the history of Mormonism and American culture, it is indispensable." — Sonia Hazard, Assistant Professor of Religion, Florida State University

"This engaging and sometimes playful book explores an almost two-century-long obsession with proving or disproving the reality of a mysterious set of metallic plates that Joseph Smith claimed to have found in glacial hill in upstate New York. Bushman excels in capturing the inner compulsions and assumptions of the witnesses, writers, artists, and historians who have responded to the plates, showing that over time 'the golden plates' have indeed become enchanted." — Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Author of A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1830-1870

"No other writer has so clearly and concisely gathered together the many treatments of Smith's gold plates, and Bushman's work is an important contribution in this sense, among others." — Nicholas S. Literski, JD, PhD, for the Association for Mormon Letters, Twenty-First Century Mormon Literature

"An excellent treatment of an important subject. Highly recommended." — Choice

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191365893
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	04/16/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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