Rating: 
Summary: An Interesting and Controversial Book
Review: I wish that Amazon had a way to search for books that get rated as zero or one star AND five stars by various readers! I am sure that the resulting list would consist of wonderful, challenging, interesting books. This is such a book. Joseph Smith was one of the most interesting and, in the end, important Americans of the Nineteenth century. Sadly, his followers today are offended by much of what Joseph Smith, the man, was. Fawn Brodie tells this story faithfully and well. Attacks on the author's methodology notwithstanding, this is a great and truthful biography, which gives insight into the man, his age and the American soul. It should be read open-mindedly by anyone who wishes insight into the forces that shape the American mind.
Rating: 
Summary: not history
Review: This book is an example of an anti-mormon trying to write an historical account and remain sitting on the fence. This cannot be accomplished and Fawn Brodie failes. This is not the history of Joseph Smith the man or the prophet. The background resrearch is horrible and the commentary leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the reader. The only message I got from this book is that Fawn Brodie is bitter and cannot write without this bitterness coming out in here book. One of the worst biographies on Joseph Smith that I have read.
Rating:
Summary: Hard-to-find info, realistic viewpoint
Review: I have been studying the LDS Church for about a year now, and have never been able to locate the historical records I wanted to see. In this book, Ms. Brodie includes not just quotes from Joseph Smith and his followers, but also three appendixes full of reproductions of nineteenth century documents dealing with the life and court record of Smith. Ms. Brodie also manages to make it a very interesting book, in spite of the fact that there are more names and dates contained in it than any average history book. (Proof, I suppose, of the author's exhaustive research.) The book is not completely objective; it takes the viewpoint of the skeptic investigating the Mormon Church (she even includes quotes by Mark Twain regarding the Mormons!) This biography is essential reading for the person interested in the LDS Church, as well as LDS members. If Mormonism is the truth, and Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God, then the authorities should have nothing to fear... right?
Rating: 
Summary: An old standard
Review: This is the definative Joseph Smith autobiography, Brodie is famous for the portraits of men of power and Joseph Smith is far more interesting then Richard Nixon. Brodie really is viewed as an absolute evil in the Mormon church, there is no doubt about that, I remember hearing her name sworn at long before I ever heard of the book. Arguing about religion is a long and no-way street, one can only enjoy the book as a great introduction to the most interesting part of American history. The book reads like a charm and is really entertaining, and regardless of that entertainment value- Brodie has you wondering what is to be believed from her sources, and she certainly succeeded in luring me in to Mormon History, after four years of continual reading, still not able to reach conclusions about Polygamy and the nature of the early Mormon church. These questions Brodie raises throughout her book. I didn't give the book a five star rating simply because I am really annoyed when the author tells us what Joseph Smith was thinking, on the basis of her Freudian analysis. I really don't buy it, and honestly don't know what place that technique has in legitimate history.I recommend this book to those who are willing to keep reading.
Rating:
Summary: Not To Be Believed!
Review: If you are looking for a one sided attack on the LDS Church this is the book for you. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has enemies both inside and outside of the Church who delight in tearing it down. While Fawn Brodie was a member of the Church when this book was written, that in no way should imply that this was a fair and accurate study. For various reasons there are a certain number of people who stay in the Church, even though they don't believe it is true any longer. There are also those who leave the Church but who can't leave it alone. Some... eager individuals... lecture the rest of us about Church doctrines in which they no longer believe. They criticize the use of Church resources to which they no longer contribute. They condescendingly seek to counsel the Brethren whom they no longer sustain. They leave the Church but they cannot leave the Church alone. -Neal Maxwell, Ensign, May 1996, 68. Lest you think I digress, I tell you these things to put this book into perspective. Miss. Brodie, an acknowleged agnostic, and many like her who are critical of the Church, write and love books like this which justify their apostate sympathies or actions. I suspect that is why there are so many favorable reviews of this book. Faithful Church members have no reason to want to read this book, which they know is filled with half truths and inuendo, so they don't come here to review it. Fawn Brodie pretends to know what was in the mind of Joseph Smith when he supposedly did what he did. This book comes closer to being a novel than an historical text. Her methodology was also terribly flawed. While at first glance it looks like her efforts have merit. All one has to do is look at her much discredited work on Thomas Jefferson ("Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History") and compare it with this work to see the parallels. For a critical rereading of this book, see "Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass," an excellent deconstruction by Hugh Nibley of Fawn Brodie's methodology.
Rating:
Summary: Spellbinding and Beautifully Researched
Review: Mrs. Brodie, a highly respected historian, has written what must still be the definitive book on this charismatic and controversial American figure. Since she was raised a Mormon and had access to documents that the Church normally forbids to outsiders, she is able to separate out aspects of the "official" biographies of Smith from the realities of his life and times. I was struck by how admiring, in many ways, she is of him: unlike the Church's view, which paints him as completely unlearned (thereby strengthening the argument that the Book of Mormon had to be the word of God), she celebrates his energetic inventiveness, the facility with words and ideas that might have made him a novelist had he had a more conventional education. She also has meticulously researched the trends and climate of the times which inform practically every word of the Book of Mormon. A fair and admirable piece of history writing.
Rating:
Summary: Great reading, great history
Review: The best things about Brodie's work: 1)She is accurate. Even though it's been decades since this book has been out, it is still a widely-read text. She is a competent historian, which is a must if you want to learn about things as they reflect reality. 2)She is readable. You can actually -enjoy- reading this one! It makes things much easier when a historian can write well, and Brodie does. 3)She has a fascinating subject. Joseph Smith is one interesting fellow, as evidenced by the successful church that has sprung up in Utah. For some orthodox Mormons, reading this may even be quite adventuresome, as they learn about Smith from another perspective! I think everyone can read this and be intrigued by a complex person. If I have any complaint, it's that Brodie tries to psychoanalyze Smith too much. Obviously every biography is going to involve some speculation - unless you can actually interview the person yourself - but I thought she went too far at times in assuming she knew "why" Smith did certain things. Overall I highly recommend the book and I think it is still after all these years the best biography on Smith you can get your hands on.
Rating:
Summary: Facts are stubborn things...
Review: This book is written at the intersection of myth, history, biography and religion (in its crudest forms). Ms. Brodie's carefully researched and documented biography of Joseph Smith, a man who fraudulently claimed the title of God's prophet, is a powerful antidote to the sweet portrayal of Mormonism as just another branch of really family-friendly Christians. It isn't, and never was, any such thing. Leaving aside claims of absolute truth (in other words, I won't bother with saying Mormonism is wrong as a fact - though it is - for this review I will assume that that is unknowable) Mormonism's historical foundations - as ably exposed in this biography - are fraudulent and opposed to the letter AND spirit of Biblical Christianity. I don't believe that Ms. Brodie had any such intention, but the Book of Mormon, as the foundation of Mormonism, is inextricably bound up with joseph Smith. They stand and fall together. She exposes him as a fraud, a liar, a cheat and a seducer of women (as often as not, other men's wives, he was VERY family friendly). If the Prophet is a demonstrated liar - then how can his prophecy be accepted as truth when it is based on his own and the "witnesses" (men who followed him into every evil action he carried out until a few of them repudiated him) testimony and he is a demonstrated liar, several of them were as well, and others of them repudiated their witness later? The Bible rests on no such insecure foundations. While we accept and expect that the human writers of God's Word were sinners, they did not live a continuing life of deceipt as they penned God's Word. Even Paul, by his own admission the "Chief of Sinners", REPENTED of his sin PRIOR to being called as an apostle. While he did still sin later, he never LIVED sin and elevated it to a lifestyle or claimed God's sanction for his wickedness as Joseph Smith repeatedly did. As my title says, and paraphrasing President Reagan, "facts are stubborn things." The virtue of this book is that it leaves aside the Biblical issues that real Christianity has with the aberration of Mormonism and instead focuses attention on the historical record of Mormonism's founding, self-proclaimed "prophet" with devastating results for his credibility and authority. Any person who reads this to see what the record says about Joseph Smith will find out. If you don't want to know - you won't accept it - even as it is presented here, in black and white. Kelly Whiting
Rating:
Summary: My impressions
Review: I don't know how any knowledgeable, educated person can read this book and not conclude that Joseph Smith was a fraud who pulled off a whopper of a scam. I've never read a more thoroughly researched, documented and footnoted book. I'm a former Mormon who found this book to be an eye-opener.
Rating:
Summary: A lesson in truth, if you dare..........
Review: Teaming with documentation! Library of Congress, Court documents, letters, diaries, even the the Mormon's own church history books (with certain phrases selectively removed, of course). How can any Mormon deny that they don't know ALL the truth about their own religion after reading this book! If you truly believe in the Mormon church you should be willing to read this book. After all, the "Glory of God is Intelligence," right?
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