Rating: 
Summary: For the real history of Joseph Smith's polygamy come here.
Review: The author does a wonderful job of first determining which women were actually, strongly documented wives of Joseph Smith, then those that there is some evidence for, then some where it is just heresay. He then organizes the book by bascially writing biographical sketches of each wife, including as much of there own story as possible. These women are portrayed without either praising or condeming them. This book is recommend for anyone who really wants to know about the Prophet Joseph Smith's polygamous activites.
Rating:
Summary: Jospeh Smith & Emmanuel, brothers in polygamy and pedophiles
Review: This is a long overdue look at one of what I refer to as "The Big Two Controversies" in mormonism, i.e. the ugly history and legacy of polygamy and racism under the guise of revelation. Much like the reprehensible excuses following the lifting of the black priesthood ban, mormon leaders have never repudiated polygamy as a doctrine and try their best to hide that it ever existed. If you doubt this, look at the recent "priesthood" instruction manual detailing the teachings of Brigham Young. In a timeline of Young's life, it mentions his first wife and remarriage after her death but no mention of his dozens of other wives. To an uninformed reader, you would think Young the model husband, committed to monogamy.It is clear from Compton's work that Smith was a philanderer who used a supposed revelation from God to keep his understandably upset wife under control. I liken this to the Book of Abraham. When a travelling show came to town with Egyptian hieroglyphs, of course Smith had to pretend to be able to translate them, otherwise he would be exposed for the fraud he was. I will give Smith credit for this, he was slick. Smith's polygamist ways were obviously destructive to his first wife Emma and to the hundreds of other women who ended up caught up in polygamous relationships, many at a very young age given away to lecherous older men as rewards for their loyalty to Smith. Lest you buy into the mormon party line that this is old news and no longer an issue, it is still central in mormon theology, still contained in mormon scripture and still haunting the church today. Elizabeth Smart's captor "Emmanuel" was merely following original mormon teachings about polygamy. Even the kidnapping is not that farfetched when you look at some of the methods Smith used to get the women he lusted after. This book is mammoth in size and detail, but it is worth every minute of reading time. Polygamy is deeply entrenched in the mormon church and is a formative issue in their theology. As Elizabeth Smart's ordeal shows, the mormon church and innocent young girls are still paying for the legacy of polygamy today.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough research combined with compassion and eloquence
Review: Todd Compton has done a truly impressive job in documenting the plural wives of Joseph Smith, and the personal trials, hardships, and religious rewards of polygamy. His focus on the wives, rather than on Joseph Smith, enables the reader to empathize more fully with the sacrifice these women made in the name of their religious convictions. Compton also does an excellent job explaining why women who were products of a victorian society, would embrace such a radically different and scorned way of life, which, pratically speaking, brought them very little rewards in this life. There is information which may shock current Latter-day Saints, due to the fact that the modern LDS church has attempted to distance itself from this early practice, but it is information which is essential to know to understand the origins of the church's theology. Over and over I was impressed by how well Compton seemed to reach into the very heart of the experiences of these devout women who did! , indeed, live in sacred loneliness.
Rating:
Summary: The plain truth about Smith's polygamous ways
Review: Todd Compton, who has a Ph.D. from UCLA in classics, has outdone himself with this book. Written from a factual perspective while incorporating the individual story of each woman who married the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, this book is interesting reading for Mormon or nonMormon alike. Although Latter-day Saint Mormons have not officially practiced polygamy since 1890 (still, many who belong to splinter groups and follow Smith continue its practive even today), having relations with more than one woman is a foundational piece upon which the Mormon Church was built. Although Compton is more conservative than others when it comes to how many wives Smith had--he says 33 while others count more than 50--the author shows that these women married Smith in secret ceremonies in order to keep his wife Emma from finding out. Smith also convinced them to have his children, oftentimes while they were married to their original husbands. (This is better classified as polyandry rather than polygamy.) In essence, Smith had relations with each of his wives at his personal convenience. Generally these women did not live with him, and when they did, they did not live openly as wives but rather as helpers around his home. It was Brigham Young who first flaunted his polygamous ways. So, in all actuality, they were merely Smith's play toys in the name of God, allowing him to have a variety of sexual partners with little responsibility for his actions. His first plural wife, Fanny Alger, was only 14 when he (in his late 20s) married her in 1833, well before the "revelation" on polygamy that he received in the early 1840s. Most of Smith's marriages took place in Nauvoo, ILL, and after he was martyred in 1844, the lives of these women took many different directions, which Compton details through diaries and historical records. Ranging in age from 14 to 54, these women were "colorful, tragic figures," as Compton puts it. The vast majority of these women are painted in lonely colors. All in all, I would say that I did not read one of Compton's stories that made me feel like polygamy helped any particular wife reach her potential. Instead, I only saw sadness and despair regarding the effects of polygamy. Perhaps this is why many of his wives later campaigned against polygamy in their later years. I recommend "Sacred Loneliness" for those readers who are interested in the real story of Joseph Smith's wives and the reality of their many hardships. Indeed Smith's actions should never be considered a fun little innocent hobby. Instead, it served as nothing more than benefitting Joseph Smith.
| 
