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David Sehat, Spencer W. McBride. Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom., The American Historical Review, Volume 129, Issue 2, June 2024, Pages 748–749, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhae032
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The history of Mormonism in the United States has long stood as an implicit rebuke to the nation’s self-celebration as a place of unfettered religious freedom. In this fascinating and gripping book, Joseph Smith for President, Spencer W. McBride uses the story of Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, to show how much the American experiment has come up short. Offering a narrative history set in the wider context of early nineteenth-century American democracy, McBride reveals the Mormon story interacting with all the weighty issues of the era, including the emergence of national citizenship rights and the incipient jurisdictional disputes between federal, state, and municipal governments.
Part of the power of McBride’s history is its close attention to Smith as a political and religious leader. Smith was only fourteen years old in 1820, when he started to experience what he characterized as visions from God. He soon drew followers and formed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fleeing persecution in New York and Ohio, the Mormons eventually made their way to Missouri, where, for a time, they created a stable community. But violent conflict developed between the Mormons and their neighbors. After the Mormons launched preemptive strikes on the surrounding communities, Missouri’s governor, Lilburn W. Boggs, issued an order stating that the Mormons “must be exterminated or driven from the state” in order to ensure public peace.
