Description

"In the first edition of this work, David Persuitte provided, with the support of several recently found documents, a revealing biographical profile of Joseph Smith that resolved many of the controversies concerning the character of the man and cast light on the path he took in establishing the Mormon religion. Persuitte also presented an extensive comparative analysis positing that the probable conceptual source for The Book of Mormon was a book written by an early New England minister named Ethan Smith. This comparative analysis indicated that Ethan Smith's book provided not only the basic story line for The Book of Mormon but many of its religious concepts as well.

"In this expanded and revised second edition of his book, Persuitte incorporates many new findings relating to the origin of The Book of Mormon—including a large number of additional parallels with Ethan Smith's book and other early likely sources. As a result, this book sheds much new light on the path Joseph Smith took toward founding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." (From back cover.)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Preface to the Second Edition
Prologue

Part One: Angels, Peepstones, and Gold Plates

1. "A Romancer of the First Water"
2. Visions and revivals
3. The Prophet in His Own Country
4. The 1826 "Trial"
5. A Record from the Earth?
6. "I Shall Proceed to Do a Marvelous Work"
7. The Gold Bible
8. "Send Them the Heralds of Salvation"

Part Two: Another Book of God?

9. Ancient or Modern?
10. A Vermont Preacher's Theory
11. The Idea and Its Development

Part Three: The Comparisons

12. To the Land of Promise
13. The Prophecies
14. The Division
15. The Wars
16. The Backsliding
17. The Arrival of Jesus
18. The Final Years
19. The Book of Ether

Part Four: Turmoil in Zion

20. The Curse of Cain
21. Steppingstone to Disaster

Epilogue

Appendices

1. The "Wood Scrape"
2. The Book of Mormon and Ancient America
3. The Spalding Theory
4. The Book of Abraham

Notes
Bibliography
Index