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82 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Re-evaluating No Man Knows My History, July 21, 2000
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.
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71 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Considering Reconsidering..., September 8, 2000
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.
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77 of 91 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A thoughtful compilation, August 16, 2000
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.
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