Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History

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.)