Customer Reviews

"God Has Made Us a Kingdom": James Strang And the Midwest Mormons

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The foreword of the book gave me a better idea of what I was going to read. I had longed for this book. Books about the other denominations, sprung out of Joseph Smith (1805-1844) are very limited. If they do exist, they are apologetic, not neutral scholarship.

V C Speek, with her sublime and humble style, diplomatic and investigative, has given me a personal deep understanding of Strang and his people. She has dug in archives, she has read books about the LDS movements, former books about Strang, taken contact with his descendants and the congregation that still cherish this faith. I thought it would be the life story of Strang - I wanted to have some source criticism of his two major works, the Voree plates and the Book of Law. I did get some insight, but more on the surface. Speek didn't want to go into the polemical side of these issues. Good done - she treated these works as natural as all other sides of Strang's life. Normally, Strang becomes the focus in many books and the way she has dedicated the half part of the book to the five wives of Strang and two chapters to the time after his murder and what happened to his people and the controversy between his followers and the islanders, have made a book a sort of a synthesis.

The book starts with the discovery of this denomination in Voree and how Speek starts her voyage thru the archives in different cities to capture this off-shot of Joseph Smith' movement. After his death many sought to be new leaders of the church, one of them his own brother, William Smith. Strang in his own way - thru personal revelation and a letter (put in question) by Joseph himself - became a new prophet for a new people with a new covenant. Even though he had broken with Joseph about the issue of plural marriage, he took with himself the role of translator, prophet and seer. He established a new kingdom according to the kingdom envisioned by Joseph, the Council of Fifty. Strang came to accept plural marriage. He became the king Joseph never had the time to become, he also got his kingdom till both islanders and people of his own put a stop to it. He also became a senator, Joseph had run for president, but never made it.

So much continued, with it also the same troubles: mobs attacking the movement, stealing, rumour spreading about how dangerous and contra-US the movement is. Once again the people had to relive the Missouri and Nauvoo persecutions. With his murder, his wives scattered and what happened - yes, just find out by your self. Left was that island, Beaver Island, civilised, modernised, but empty.

His wives were different in many ways. Each of them was educated, competent and skilled. Speek has captured their sorrows and happy times, thru diaries of their own or others and has shown this spirit of survival and of hope.

The resemblance between Joseph and Strang shows how much belief and faith make us want to change everything. The new revelations of Strang brought new perspectives to the LDS faith. It can be his way, it can be the way he understood his higher power, at the end, I see how much we need faith. When you make a city out of marshes and jungles, you have proven that paradise CAN exist today on earth, NOW.

Both Joseph and Strang left so many broken hearts, so much unresolved. The question of whether they are fraud or prophets haunts them. But Speek catches the people, their every day life, whether cutting trees or gathering berries, wearing funny clothes or not drinking. Finding more, and bringing new pieces to the puzzle of faith and its interaction with us. These people really had a bawl, not always, but they had it. Do we?

Vickie Speek has written a definitive history on the Strang era on Beaver Island, MI. She pays special attention to Strang's five wives, their children, and developments in the aftermath of Strang's assassination. Unlike van Noord's somewhat dry history of Strang, Speek writes in a compelling narrative style that you won't be able to put down. This book cries out to be a major motion picture. It's a fascinating story from American history.

I found this book to be very well-written from a non-judgmental position. It is a breath of fresh air. The folks at Signature Books have published a winner here. This book will be of interest to those interested in the religious movement begun by Joseph Smith. Like Smith, Strang founded cities, had several wives, and struggled to lead his people to prosperity. In a similar manner to the assignation of Joseph Smith, Strang was also murdered by those who had been his friends. Buy this book and learn about the adventures of the mid-west Mormons.

Award-winning historical researcher Vickie Cleverley Speek presents "God Has Made Us a Kingdom": James Strang and the Midwest Mormons, a meticulously researched accounting of James J. Strang, the prophetic successor to Joseph Smith for Mormons of the Midwest, who formed what would eventually become the Community of Christ. Like Joseph Smith, Strang promoted polygamy, secret ceremonies, baptism for the dead, and communal living, and even crowned himself king of the world. Yet the religious community he formed ultimately faded, with only a tiny handful of followers remaining in the U.S. today. Did polygamy bring about the end of Strang's kingdom, or was it another, less readily apparent force? Expertly researched, "God Has Made Us a Kingdom" brings the story of Strang, his wives, his children, and his followers to vivid life, and is highly recommended especially for college library and American religious history shelves.

Vickie Speeks's "God Has Made Us a Kingdom" has joined the many other books on my bookshelf about Strang. Ms Speek's book is so well written and so thoroughly researched that I could dispense with all others on this subject but this one. She has tried very hard (and I believe has been successful) to show the various viewpoints of this contriversial King of Beaver Island. The numerous footnotes attest to her extensive research.

Although there have been a number of biographies of James J. Strang, Prophet of the Great Lakes Mormons, very little has been written about his followers, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite).

Vickie Speek's excellent book, "God Has Made Us a Kingdom," is a much needed step toward painting the broader picture. In addition to telling Strang's story in a careful, engaging way, Speek tells the stories of his four plural (or polygamous) wives, both before and after their husband's martyrdom. These narratives enrich our understanding of the lives of early Mormons --- especially the (often ignored) lives of early Mormon women. It should also be mentioned that the history Speek includes of the Strangites after Strang cannot be found in any other book.

Speek's careful treatment of the charges that the Beaver Island Mormons were engaged in church-sanctioned stealing illustrates her fair and neutral approach to the sources.

Overall, this is an excellent book. My only complaint was that it left me wanting to read even more of the always interesting history of the Strangite Mormon church.