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Reconsidering No Man Knows My History

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It is nice now that more than fifty years has transpired since "No Man Knows My History" was first published to take a look backwards. I was struck by the fact that most of the essays that Mr. Bringhurst published in this book were generally supportive of Fawn Brodie's scholarship. Some questioned certain sections of her book.

One particularly insightful essay challenged much of what she wrote on the matter of polygamy as it was being practiced by the Mormons in Nauvoo just prior to Joseph Smith's murder and subsequent Martyrdom. The essayist pointed out that while some of the specific information that Fawn Brodie may have gathered on this question may have been incorrect, her general conclusions about the practices going on in Nauvoo, were almost certainly correct. This is a particularly difficult issue to investigate. A secret practice occurring within a religious organization some 100 years prior to the time a book is written. It hardly seems surprising that even the best author might get some of the facts wrong. Its too Fawn Brodie's credit, that she got the general picture correct.

One essay that I found disappointing was much ado over nothing. The writer dealt with certain literary methods she felt Fawn Brodie used in writing her book. She suggested these were the methods of a fiction or literature writer, and not a historian. Actually, while Fawn Brodie was a history professor at UCLA, she got initial college degrees in English and in Literature. Fawn clearly had a talent many historians don't.....the ability to write a well-researched book in a manner that is interesting and readable by people outside academia. Something that that particular author that essay probably lacks herself.

Bringhurst himself includes an essay which was later part of his book on Fawn Brodie, "A Biographer's Life" that describes Fawn's early life, the immense amount of research and effort she put into the book, the reaction of the LDS Church to her research efforts, her attempts to explain the book to her Orthodox LDS family, and her subsequent excommunication which was probably largely orchestrated by her uncle, and subsequent President of the LDS Church, David O. McKay. There is alot of insightful material here which it would be nice for anyone reading "No Man Knows My History" to be able to examine.

Most of the essays are good. I recommend this book.

One Hundred (and one) years after the Mormon prophet's demise in Nauvoo, Fawn Mckay Brodie had completed a biography of him. This work on Joseph Smith's life has within certain communities has been received both with high priase and acclaim as well as severe condemnation. This controversy alone has raised the status of the book amongst historical, socialogical and literary reviewers. Newell G. Bringhurst brings this dynamic alive with a selection of essays about Brodie's offering from a variety of critical and careful perspectives.

The focus of this collection is not to examine the actual biography of Smith and its validity, rather it is about Brodie's work. Many of the relevant issues discussed about a task as she achieved are brought to light by the various essays: how meticulous was her research, the literary style are prose of the work, the reliability of her sources, the consistency of the work, the conclusions her work leads to, etc. All these were carefully examined by a number of the essayists. Furthermore, the character of Brodie was considered, i.e. her sense of purpose and accomplishment, perhaps her sense of duty. There are amongst each of the essays remarkable insights into both the work on a scholarly level and into the woman who created it all.

The synopsis of the collection as a whole is widespread praise for Brodie's ground-breaking effort. She has treaded into a life with such incredible care and insight which few have since unsuccessfully attempted to match. The biographer is given the credit she desrved with "No Man Knows My History" and later solidly earned with her other works.

I recommend this strongly for those who have an interest in examining historical research and particularly those interested in Brodie's research. For those interested in Mormon research, I suggest both this "Reconsidering..." and Brodie's biography be read concurrently or at least in succession.

Newell Bringhurst, a highly-qualified Mormon historian who is not active in the church, has assembled an interesting and balanced set of essays about Fawn Brodie's extremely important book on Joseph Smith. Devout Mormons reject her work out-of-hand (much of the time, I fear, without reading it--the Church has told them not to). But real historians are not fearful of research and of facts. This is the basis for this collection. The best essay is Bringhurst's own, which gives a clear picture of the difficulties Fawn B. encountered when researching the book, as well as an analysis of the validity of her methods. In spite of heavy indoctrination by family and community, Fawn B. managed to develop a clarity of sight and and desire to penetrate myths and propaganda that made all of her works important and unignorable by future writers on their subjects. The "pro-Mormon" essays in this collection, interestingly, tend to be the most bombastic and evasive--much like the master of apologist irrelevance, Hugh Nibley. Like a good historian, Bringhurst provides the evidence and leaves it to the reader's intelligence to evaluate it for himself--the exact opposite of what Mormon authorities do.

One must keep in mind, that Fawn Brodie wrote her biography of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, in 1945. This book is a classic. She deserves praise for her work, even if Mormons don't like hearing about it. Mormon apologists like arguing about minor points about her book, trying to "explain it away, under the carpet." But the vast majority and the most important points of her groundbreaking work have never been seriously refuted. Newell Bringhurst's book is a masterpiece. He has compiled this impressive volume, Brodie's biography of Joseph Smith. It qualifies as essential for the serious reader wanting to know all facts and then making a qualified judgement. Bringhurst has brought together a collection of essays by various writers, Mormons and Non-Mormons, weighing both sides of the evidence.

It's unfortunate that readers of both this book and the book it deals with "No Man Knows My History", get so sensitive and threatened if they perceive their own personal beliefs being attacked.

This book is a collection of 7 essays by Brodie's contemporaries and fellow historians, who give OBJECTIVE opinions on her groundbreaking work on the life of Joseph Smith. Unlike most reviewers below, each essayist is able to put aside their personal beliefs and critique Brodie's work from a purely scholarly viewpoint, and so you will not find either apologetics or polemics within this collection.

Each essay's author is able to comment on both the good and the bad of "No Man Knows My History" and is able to do so without standing on a soap box.

My favourite essay was the final one by Roger D. Launius "From Old to New Mormon History: Fawn Brodie and the Legacy of Scholarly Analysis of Mormonism", who acknowledges the effect her work has had on Mormon historians but also highlights the effort spent on addressing the issues she raised has diverted attention away from potentially more beneficial works.

Todd Compton's essay on Brodie's coverage of Smith's plural wives acknowledges the pioneering and exhaustive work Brodie performed in her appendix on the subject, but also highlights the flaws in her assumptions, to the extent of convincingly refuting a few of her claims of Smith's plural marriages - including evidence that Oliver Buell could not possibly be Smith's offspring.

In conclusion, this collection pales in comparison to the work it comments on but it does show an example of objective scholarship when reviewing works as controversial as Brodie's "No Man Knows My History".

On the fiftieth anniversary of its first publication, Utah State University issued this volume of retrospective essays about Fawn Brodie's book, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith. Here are some quotations from this 1996 book:

"Morgan pointed to a revealing confession made by Brodie sometime earlier, whereby she had admitted to Morgan that 'Joseph was more of a man than [she had] made him out to be.' What she had presented 'was too much in the vein of "I expose."'" (Pg. 20)
"Her basic thesis in interpreting the life of Joseph Smith viewed the Mormon leader from a 'naturalistic perspective,' that is, as primarily motivated by nonreligious factors. She later noted, 'I was convinced before I ever began writing that Joseph Smith was not a true prophet.'" (Pg. 40)
"Brodie's biography of Joseph Smith ... had two effects. It allowed debunking critics of Mormonism to dismiss Joseph Smith as other than a prophet. But simultaneously ... it required critics of Mormonism to take Joseph Smith seriously. It is the seriousness rather than the debunking that has proved to be the longer-lasting result. This contribution must not be minimized." (Pg. 121)
"Furthermore, Brodie was a psychohistorian, interested in documenting and evaluating Joseph Smith's sexuality. Here she was pathbreaking, and was entirely justified in looking at her subject's sexual life." (Pg. 155)

It is noteworthy that so many essays in this book give the credit due to the wise and courageous Fawn Brodie.

Yet this is a book attempting damage control for the Mormon Church. Damage that was mostly created by the egotism of its first two leaders.

This situation of opinions brings to mind one of my favourite New Testament sayings attributed to Jesus.
"Narrow is the way that leads to truth and few there be that find it. Wide is the gate the leads to destruction and many will go in that way." This reflects upon a sad truth that the majority always follows the false advice of directions of executives and are usually misled thereby.
The courageous and wise are a rare breed, and a few of them can be found in every religion.

First of all it should be noted that before one argues forever about the facts, this book was written by a Mormon because she cared for Mormons. As more information becomes available over time Fawn Brodies claims are receiving more and more credibility. The damning evidence poins out that the claim to be a prophet does not make one a true prophet or even make one moral, is building into a flood. A presennt flood of data that all the apologetics and damage control may never abate. The more we dig the worse it gets for JS & BY.

Yet, somehow the endurance of the Mormon people continues on in a functioning community of believers in the LDS religion. Many are innocent, devout and sincere people.

I am not sure if that acclaimed masterpiece, "No man knows my History" annoys average Mormons more because of what it says, or because - after having spent so much energy telling the world about Joseph Smith and his band[with a limited education in the matter], it is disconcerting to hear the evidence of what really went on. To understand the past it is not necessary to cry over it. Or to curse and discredit present historians about it.

It will often be disconcerting to hear about the many of things the church never mentions until too long after one returns for a missionary stint.

I know this feeling, I once had to face the dark history of my own church, a different one.