No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The first paperback edition of the classic biography of the founder of the Mormon church, this book attempts to answer the questions that continue to surround Joseph Smith. Was he a genuine prophet, or a gifted fabulist who became enthralled by the products of his imagination and ended up being martyred for them? 24 pages of photos. Map.

From the Inside Flap

The first paperback edition of the classic biography of the founder of the Mormon church, this book attempts to answer the questions that continue to surround Joseph Smith. Was he a genuine prophet, or a gifted fabulist who became enthralled by the products of his imagination and ended up being martyred for them? 24 pages of photos. Map.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 2nd Revisedenlarged ed edition (August 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679730540
• ISBN-13: 978-0679730545
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (165 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #156,032 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

318 of 398 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Timeless Classic in Mormon Studies, April 2, 2001

By	Missing in Action (Idaho Falls, Idaho USA) - See all my reviews

I've consummed a library of books on Mormon studies, and had held off on reading "No Man Knows My History" because I had already read a considerable quantity of biographical material on Joseph Smith. I capitulated at last only because it is among the most well known books on early Mormon history. I am so glad I did. No book could have pulled it all together and made sense of it all as well as Fawn Brodie's book. It is as valuable today as it was when it was first written over half a century ago. None of the objective scholarship of recent years contradicts her conclusions, but rather validates her, page after page after page. Her insight is piercing, her style is almost poetic, and her message is powerful.

It is not any easy book for a Mormon to read, as is evidenced by some of the reactionary attacks Brodie receives in some of the reviews already written. The faithful do not want to hear that Joseph Smith was an "evolutionary revolutionary," his doctrine growing with his ego and sense of personal magnificence. But this is no mean swipe at the character of Joseph Smith...if anything, you come away with a sense of awe at the creative genius, the charismatic giant that he must have been. If he brought scorn and violence upon himself and his people, it was a measure of the power he produced and the fear that he struck in lesser men with whom he shared his time and space. Nevertheless, Brodie's exploration of the world of Joseph Smith and the context within which his doctrine evolved is brilliant. She is adept at recognizing the role that projection has played throughout his career, beginning with the Book of Mormon, and continuing on through all of his other writings, including the History of the Church. Ms. Brodie says it best herself in the opening lines of Chapter 19: "A man's memory is bound to be a distortion of his past in accordance with his present interests, and the most faithful autobiography is likely to mirror less what a man was than what he has become." Or as is so often the case, "less what a man was than what he wished he had become." To one who has studied the role of paradigms in shaping the way we interpret our world, Brodie's book makes the most beautiful sense. To one who's faith is at stake, however, her book may serve to threaten the idylic, heroic legend of Joseph Smith that has been carefully nurtured since his murder in 1844.

This is among the finest pieces of historical literature I have had the priveledge of reading. Her scholarship and writing and fearless approach to tackle controversial issues with objectivity and sensitivity is matched only by Juanita Brooks in the realm of Mormon studies. This is a book not just to read, but to consume.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, Balanced Look at Religious Genius, February 28, 2008

By	G. Bestick (Dobbs Ferry, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Like Ben Franklin, Kit Carson, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, Joseph Smith was incandescent in a uniquely American way. The church he founded is America's most successful home grown religion. A century and a half after Smith's murder by an Illinois mob, the Mormon Church flourishes, with over 12 million members worldwide. You don't have to believe he was divinely inspired - and Fawn Brodie clearly doesn't - to be impressed by his vision, energy, resilience, entrepreneurial skill and improvisational brilliance. Smith was undoubtedly a religious "genius" - William James' term for charismatic founders of new religious movements. This superb biography gives us the life in all its tumult and glory while skillfully refuting the larger than life myths it spawned.

As Brodie shows, even as a semi-literate farm boy in upstate New York, Smith was a magnet for the social and theological currents whirling through 1820s America. His Book of Mormon, a mythic tale of warring tribes in the primordial American wilderness, drew upon magic, folklore, superstition, Masonic ritual, the old and new testaments of the Christian bible, racial prejudice against blacks and Indians, and the crude anthropology of his day. He grounded its authenticity in the Angel Moroni, who allegedly led him to the golden plates on which the book was inscribed in ancient hieroglyphics. He, Joseph, claimed only to be the messenger.

Brodie has less interest in the mysteries of divine revelation than she does in the mysteries of human charisma. Smith's powerful voice, penetrating gaze and bluff, good-natured personality drew men and women from all walks of life into his orbit. His followers loved the man, according to Brodie, and saw in him the physical embodiment of their church. He was also shrewd enough to custom fit his religion to the character of his time, making Mormonism an ingenious meld of the secular and the spiritual. To a people eager for miracles, he proclaimed several. He gave Mormonism a patina of democracy, creating governing councils and making each member accountable for the overall health of the church. He also played on the willingness of Americans to see evidence of God's favor in the size of their bank balances. In Smith's religion, there was little friction between the good life on earth and the one that comes after.

As the Mormons migrated west through Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, Smith updated his theology through periodic revelations from the Almighty. His most controversial revelation had to do with the taking of multiple wives. Interestingly, it wasn't the practice of polygamy that led to Mormon persecution during Smith's lifetime. Polygamy was too explosive for even Smith to sell to his followers, so he kept this revelation a secret outside his inner circle. The persecution the sect endured in Missouri and Illinois had to do with local fears that Smith's religious army would tip the balance of political power. That the prophet and his followers were cruelly persecuted, particularly in Missouri, is beyond dispute. By being tone deaf to their neighbors' concerns and by proclaiming themselves above secular authority, they created a decent portion of the resistance they encountered.

At the time of his death in 1844, Smith was in the middle of a run for President of the United States. He was presiding over his church, the town of Nauvoo, a private military army, a vast financial and real estate empire, and a secret squadron of "fifty of so" wives. As he said in a sermon to his followers, "I don't blame anyone for not believing in my history. If I had not experienced what I have, I could not have believed it myself."

His was one of the most thrilling high wire acts ever seen in America. Brodie tells the life clearly, does an outstanding job of documenting her assertions, and gives credit where it's due. While not overlooking his tendency to claim divine justification for all too human urges, she has sympathy for the struggle he waged between "what he really was and what he most desperately wanted to be." If you believe Smith had an actual pipeline to God, you'll probably see this book as a hatchet job. If you see him as a brilliant but flawed human being, you'll appreciate this balanced, clear-eyed biography.

70 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting!, October 8, 1999

By A Customer

As a Mormon, I expected to find myself offended by this book, but it simply wasn't the case. Granted, Brodie approaches Smith with the assumption that he was not a real prophet...but once you understand that, her true facination and, yes, admiration for the man comes through.

On the downside, she does try to psychoanalyze Smith using 20th century standards, and loses much of her credibility in the process. On the other hand, though, I've never read a more riveting account of the Missouri period. This book gives a flavor for what a truly remarkable man Smith was...whether one believed his claims or not.

My advice to Mormons is: Read this book if you truly have an open mind and can appreciate a non-believer's point of view. To non-Mormomns I'd say: Remember, this book doesn't tell the whole story.

All authors on Mormon history approach the subject matter from preconceived notions of belief or unelief, and that orientation clouds whatever comes after. Contrary to other reviewers, my feeling is that a book of this kind will never help someone to understand whether a religion is genuine or not. Those decisions come from other places in one's mind...and heart.