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Rating: 
Summary: The writing is bland but overall a good scholarly work
Review: Roger Lanius is easily the most successful RLDS scholar. More importantly he is the best. This book offers the most complete picture availbe on the figure of Joseph Smith the third. IN addition, it gives some great information on the formation of the RLDS church.
Despite Lanius' connection with the RLDS, this book shows little if any bias. It is a fair and accurate portrayal of the "pragmatic prophet" Overall, it is defintely worth the time of anyone interested in the RLDS. polygamy, Emma Smith or the sucession crisis that occured after the death of Joseph. Smith
Rating:
Summary: Good information on an interesting subject
Review: This book filled in a lot of information for me that I had wondered about. It is well written and easy to read. If you are interested in early Mormonism and the origins of what used to be called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (RLDS), this is a good source. However, it does have some gaps. It doesn't give us much about his mother and their relationship. It doesn't really delve into the man's spiritual life beyond what he did when and only talks about his revelations as they affect some program he was trying to bring about. But I was very interested to learn about his role in the persecution of the Utah Saints in trying to end polygamy. And I did find it kind of funny that a man who was obsessed with others having more than one wife ended up having three and children with two of them. The last one being far younger than him. Sure it is a serial form of polygamy, but... I am glad that I own it and have read it.
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