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snowing in april

Sunday21

By Sunday21
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Maureen

Maureen

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, David13 said:

,,,As to that book [Rough Rolling Stone], I had read reviews that it was less than flattering about Joseph Smith so I decided to skip it. 

...One to truly avoid is a history of Joseph Smith by Fawn Brodie.  Skip it.  Pure hatchet job, with no facts or evidentiary support, just negative conclusions...

Deseret Books sells Rough Rolling Stone and the book has very favourable reviews.

As to Fawn Brodie's "No Man Knows my History", here's a quote from wikipedia regarding Richard Bushman's take on Ms. Brodie's book.

In 2005, LDS scholar Richard Bushman published a highly regarded biography of Smith entitled Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling which has frequently been compared to Brodie's work. In his book, Bushman noted that Brodie's "biography was acknowledged by non-Mormon scholars as the premier study of Joseph Smith"[10]and called Brodie "the most eminent of Joseph Smith's unbelieving biographers."[11] Bushman wrote in 2007 that Brodie had "shaped the view of the Prophet for half a century. Nothing we have written has challenged her domination. I had hoped my book would displace hers, but at best it will only be a contender in the ring, whereas before she reigned unchallenged."[12]

M.

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Vort

Vort

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, David13 said:

One to truly avoid is a history of Joseph Smith by Fawn Brodie.  Skip it.  Pure hatchet job, with no facts or evidentiary support, just negative conclusions.

This statement is true.

10 hours ago, Maureen said:

As to Fawn Brodie's "No Man Knows my History", here's a quote from wikipedia regarding Richard Bushman's take on Ms. Brodie's book.

In 2005, LDS scholar Richard Bushman published a highly regarded biography of Smith entitled Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling which has frequently been compared to Brodie's work. In his book, Bushman noted that Brodie's "biography was acknowledged by non-Mormon scholars as the premier study of Joseph Smith"[10]and called Brodie "the most eminent of Joseph Smith's unbelieving biographers."[11] Bushman wrote in 2007 that Brodie had "shaped the view of the Prophet for half a century. Nothing we have written has challenged her domination. I had hoped my book would displace hers, but at best it will only be a contender in the ring, whereas before she reigned unchallenged."[12]

This quote is also true. Brodie's horrible, laughable work has in fact been the standard treatment on Joseph Smith, especially for non-Mormons, fringe Mormons, and anti-Mormons. That Brodie's embarrassing work should be a standard history shows only how awful Mormon history has fared in the hands of the "experts".

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LeSellers

LeSellers

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Vort said:

That Brodie's embarrassing work should be a standard history shows only how awful Mormon history has fared in the hands of the "experts".

At least we can take comfort in the fact that her embarrassing work on Thomas Jefferson was panned, as it deserved. Perhaps her fiction on Joseph will finally be seen in the light it, too, deserves.

Lehi

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Maureen

Maureen

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, LeSellers said:

At least we can take comfort in the fact that her embarrassing work on Thomas Jefferson was panned, as it deserved. Perhaps her fiction on Joseph will finally be seen in the light it, too, deserves.

Lehi

Seriously? Brodie suspected that Sally Hemings' children were Jefferson's and with DNA testing it turned out to be true.

M.

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LeSellers

LeSellers

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Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Maureen said:

Seriously? Brodie suspected that Sally Hemings' children were Jefferson's and with DNA testing it turned out to be true.

M.

Brodie's conclusions about Jefferson's being the father of Hemmings's children were not based on science, but on speculation. Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson was not the only Jefferson man who carried the DNA markers, so there is no "proof" of paternity.

That said, I fully accept the likelihood of his being the father. There are lots of reasons I can accept this anomaly, not least of which that Sally and Martha were half sisters, and they resembled each other greatly, and the laws of Virginia forbade their marrying. I genuinely believe they loved each other, and the facts point to this conclusion. However, I freely admit that my suppositions are simply my own, and not historical fact.

Brodie's Jefferson fiction extends far beyond her notions of the "Hemmings connection", and they are all based on her mind reading, not significant evidence. She, Brodie, is a scandal monger, not a biographer.

Lehi

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LeSellers

LeSellers

Posted
Posted

In the past three weeks or so, we've have two blizzards (with at least a foot of snow each time), with intervening temps of 65°F for two days running. We're expecting 70 on Friday. It was 43 this afternoon.

Funny thing is … , well, there ain't no funny thing.

Lehi

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