No Man Knows My History : The Life of Joseph Smith

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Summary: Buy One For Every Mormon You Know.
Review: How I wish I had read this book 35 years ago before going on a mission. I have many regrets for people that I have misled with my ignorant blind faith. This book was a real wake up call for me, along with Todd Compton's "In Sacred Loneliness."

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Summary: Fascinating
Review: An excellent biography of an interesting man. This book can and should shake the faith of any Mormon. The truth hurts and in this case it is devastating to the claims of Joseph Smith and his church.

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Summary: Terrific Bio of Controversial founder of mormons
Review: Brodie's book is a MUST-READ for those interested in Mormonism. She provides information about Joseph Smith that the Mormon Church doesn't want you to know.

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Summary: Very interesting.
Review: This was an extremely well researched and interesting to read book. It is the best biography of Joseph Smith that I've come across.

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Summary: Excellent in the original. Later print may be edited!!
Review: I grew up 20 miles from Palmyra NY and thought I knew about the Mormon Church, having written reports on it. Then in the '50's I lived 5 years in Salt Lake and knew Mrs Brodie's sister and brother-in-law. These girls were neices of David O MacKay, President of the Mormon Church, and after they served their "missions" in Switzerland, Fawn and Louise each married and Fawn attended the University of Chicage. We were told that Fawn had written the book as a disertation for the University of Chicago and her uncle had allowed her to use the church records for research. (Records not on display for the public.) As a result of her research, she lost her faith in the church and she and her sister and their husbands were what I would call excommunicated. I finally found the book to read in Rochester NY in 1960 by special order because it was not available in Utah and was out of print in other places. I'm happy it has been reprinted but I'll bet it isn't on bookstore shelves in Salt Lake City!!!!! Fawn Brodie has since died. She was a thourough researcher. Her Jefferson biography was well received and reviewed.

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Summary: I refused to give it back to the library
Review: I was a lifetime Mormon till I went through a divorce and decided to take a critical look at my own beliefs. Having been born in the Church, serving a full time Mission and marrying in the temple I thought I knew all about Joseph Smith and the history of Mormonism. This book changed my life more than the Book of Mormon ever could have. For the first time many missing parts of the Mormon puzzle began to fit together and my life, as I understood it came crashing down. I literally threw up as I discovered what a bastard Joseph Smith was. No, this book isn't perfect, but having been written in 1945, it has proven itself to be the definitive expose of Mormonism's founder. I bear witness it has more truth in it than you will find inside the whitewashed history of the Mormon Church. I found myself unable to return my copy to the library and chose to pay the replacement cost. It is one of my most cherished possessions.

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Summary: Truth disguised with passion
Review: As an ex-mormon I feel this book has many claims that are true and many that are most likely not based in fact. It is a decent account of the man. Hugh Nibley's Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass does not deal handily with the issue however as mentioned above. Dr. Nibley ignores many of the issues Ms. Brodie brings up, he only negates the few that he can (and we know there are a few misinformations). This is a good starting point and a required reading for anyone planning on joing the Mormon church, I wish I would have.,

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Summary: Brodie's Book Still Most Scholarly Biography of LDS Founder
Review: Fawn Brodie is a scholar with no ax to grind in this fairly accurate reconstruction of the life of Joseph Smith, the star-crossed founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. For Mormons, the book has always been considered a reproach to official church biographies about Smith, but recent historical findings weigh heavily in Brodie's favor in assessing the actual motives and activities behind the polygamist prophet of Mormonism who said "No man knows my history." Brodie's other tomes on historic figures constitute scholarly, careful analyses of their lives, as is also the case with this effort. The style is pedantic,and could benefit from updating, but the book is well organized and paced. For the serious investigator of Mormonism, Brodie's book is important because the story of Joseph Smith is told in an era before the current visibility and church-line biographies of Smith combined to obfuscate embarrassing or conflicting details in the life of this controversial and charismatic Mormon prophet. For anyone interested in a biography of Joseph Smith that does not have the approval of the LDS Church, yet remains respected among scholars and biographers,No Man Knows My History is a definitive, quotable, and invaluable resource.

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Summary: Good American History
Review: I have been intrested in Mormanism (not being one or ever wanting to become one) so I read this as background. I was amazed to see how manipulitive Joseph was and just how far people will go when they "believe" even when there is no evidence! The names, places and events in the pre-civil war era were fascinating

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Summary: The first intellectual biography of the latter-day prophet
Review: At the time of its release, Brodies work was either either a masterpiece or muckraking depending upon the vested interest one brought to the review. Time has not been kind to all of the books details or to the methods of psychological inquiry used by Brodie. Indeed Smith has proven to be far too complex a character for the biographer. Still if one is to engage in a serious study of early Mormonism or the life of America's prophet, Brodie is a foundation work if for no other reason than to set the parameters for what follows. The life of Joseph may never fully be realized in print and Donna Hill's work is actually much closer to reviving the man than is Brodies'. Still this work will hold its place in Mormon history for no other reason than that it motivated many others of all religous persuasions and scholastic ability to look seriously at the latter-day movement and attempt to explain its significance.