The Rise of Mormonism: 1816-1844 (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Author Reveals Secret History of Mormonism as 200th Anniversary of Founder’s Birthday Nears

LONGWOOD, FL— You may have heard that Joseph Smith was the prophet of Mormonism. What you may not know are some of the shocking things he did. For example: Smith secretly married female converts, including other men's wives. With the upcoming 200th anniversary celebration of Smith’s birth (December 23), undoubtedly there will be a growing curiosity concerning his teachings, beliefs, and personal legacy. A new book from Xulon Press sheds light on the history of the Latter-day Saints religion (Mormonism) in a way few titles have ever done, including an overview of the movement’s evolution, conflicts, and sacrifices made by church members.

Much inaccurate information is printed about the Mormons, so here is an open, honest, and refreshing history of the foundational years of the Latter-day Saints restoration movement. In The Rise of Mormonism: 1816-1844 (August, $29.99, 1-59781-470-9, $43.99, 1-59781-471-7) author H. Michael Marquardt paints an accurate portrayal of the early years of Mormonism, based upon historical records. Using an objective, balanced, and respectful approach, Marquardt takes into account the spiritual aspects of the movement from the early story of finding gold plates to the tragic death of its founder. Marquardt studied on location where the events took place and uses primary sources to cover a twenty-five-year period, including early stories regarding how Joseph Smith claimed he discovered the Book of Mormon.

Although not a dedicated biography on Joseph Smith, the book does deal with the "Treasure Hunter" who thought angels talked to him. Did Joseph Smith believe in one God or many gods? Readers will discover what Smith’s final thoughts were on this. What about the extra scriptures? Marquardt deals with this too.

H. Michael Marquardt has written, published, and assisted others in writing on Mormon topics for more than thirty years. He is an independent historian and a longtime research consultant of the Latter-day Saints. He is also the author of The Joseph Smith Revelations: Text and Commentary (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1999). He has traveled to historical sites where the events took place and studied at repositories that preserve documents, journals, letters, and newspapers.

Xulon Press is the world’s largest Christian publisher, with more than 2,500 titles published to date. Retailers may order The Rise of Mormonism: 1816-1844 through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors. # # #

About the Author

H. MICHAEL MARQUARDT is an independent historian and a longtime research consultant of the Latter-day Saints (Mormons). He has been publishing on Mormonism for more than thirty years. He is the author of The Joseph Smith Revelations: Text and Commentary (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1999). --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 696 pages
• Publisher: Xulon Press (July 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597814717
• ISBN-13: 978-1597814713
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.3 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #492,111 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too bad no one bothered to edit this book, February 15, 2006

By	Gnarly1 (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews

H. Michael Marquardt has the credentials to turn out a superb book on early Mormonism. His prior work comparing exiting Mormon revelations to original manuscripts was a significant contibution to Mormon history. (The Joseph Smith Revelations: Text and Commentary. Signature Books, 1999.) But this effort barely earns 3 stars. Either Mr. Marquardt's word processer has a missing comma key or his "editor" at Xulon Press (Longwood, Florida) does not deserve the title. In addition to poor punctuation, the text is bedeviled by numerous misspellings, incorrect tenses, and, in a few cases, whole unintelligible sentences.

On to substance. This is not a book for the casual student of Mormonism. It's value comes from highlighting many obscure diary entries, affidavits, changes to original texts, and other sources which reveal the all-to-human history of Joseph Smith and strip away the mythological veneer created for him by the LDS Church. The text, however, is far too dense to hold the interest of anyone who does not have a significant prior experience with Mormon theology and history.

Better organization and livelier writing would have gone a long way toward making this a more enjoyable read.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid research that needs to be considered, June 26, 2006

By	E. Johnson (El Cajon, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I read The Rise of Mormonism along with Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by LDS historian Richard Bushman. Both books tackle Smith's life but from different perspectives. Important facts left out of Bushman's book are included here, and that's why I think every thinking reader ought to read the books side-by-side, year-by-year. You will be amazed at the information you find here that was left out by Bushman, but the Mormon perspective of Smith ought to also be considered.

I really enjoyed the solid research style of Marquardt, who went to great lengths showing the validity of his information by quoting a number of unique sources that the average reader would not find on his own. Marquardt's papers that are located at the University of Utah and his other sources are incredible. This is definitely a top-notch researcher, and though Mormons may not like the information that he provides here, everyone ought to consider both sides of the story. I'm just not sure how the Mormon can look the other way when the information so clearly shows that Smith was a master manipulator who was anything but a prophet of God as he so claimed to be.

My complaint with the book--and the reason the book is only 4 stars--was brought up by an earlier reviewer. The Rise of Mormonism contains a number of technical difficulties with the King's English. Among other problems, I found numerous misspellings (is that how you spell "misspellings"???), wrong usage of verbs, and fragments. I wonder if a qualified person ever edited the manuscript, and I would suggest the publisher and Marquardt have someone perform surgery and clean this mess up. Seriously, I'd hate to have Mormons discredit the information just because it was improperly packaged. Other than this harangue, this is an excellent work and comes highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent research and information muddled by poor readability, January 8, 2008

By	GaryTucson (Utah) - See all my reviews

Michael Marquardt is one of the best Mormon historians around. He is especially adept at researching information unavailable to the average reader and then laying that information out with no hidden agenda so the reader can decide for him/herself what to make of it. Unlike equally capable historians like D. Michael Quinn, Marquardt almost never seems to have any axe to grind and I like that. I want all the information from as many sources as possible, well documented and clear so I can form my own final opinion and Marquardt provides that in spades. Reading other authors like Bushman, Brodie and Palmer, I no longer have any doubt about what really happened in the early 1800s with the LDS movement. I could not have said that in the 1970s with all the doctored and whitewashed garbage then available.

I do have two problems with this otherwise masterful book:

1. Half of it is a rehash of Marquardt's earlier and equally well-documented book, "Inventing Mormonism," so for anyone intending to purchase this book who has already read the other, just beware of the duplication of many of the chapters.

And, as already mentioned by other reviewers:

2. The information provided is seriously muddled by an unforgivably unedited text.

Otherwise, I would have awarded five stars, because even with the punctuation problems, spelling errors and poor overall readability, there are few books available that so clearly document the perplexing historical inaccuracies of the Mormon story. Hurray for even-minded, capable people like Michael Marquardt who have devoted years of their lives to uncover valuable information and then publish it for the rest of us - perfectly readable or not!