Joseph Smith

Rough Stone Rolling

By: Richard Lyman Bushman

Narrated by: James Anderson Foster

Founder of the largest indigenous Christian church in American history, Joseph Smith published the 584-page Book of Mormon when he was 23 and went on to organize a church, found cities, and attract thousands of followers before his violent death at age 38. Richard Bushman, an esteemed cultural historian and a practicing Mormon, moves beyond the popular stereotype of Smith as a colorful fraud to explore his personality, his relationships with others, and how he received revelations.

An arresting narrative of the birth of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling also brilliantly evaluates the prophet's bold contributions to Christian theology and his cultural place in the modern world.

©2005 Richard Lyman Bushman (P)2018 Tantor

Most informative book about Joseph Smith

Richard Bushman's biography of Joseph Smith is one of the finest works of History I've ever read. He is well documented and does a great job telling the life story of a intersting, complex, and difficult figure in American History.

Balanced history

Four stars instead of five because I have read (or listened to) better books, but this book was very well done. I believe he presents a well-researched and thoughtful history that is balanced and fair.

objective

Balanced and honest. loved it. much context was added to help me understand stories I had heard before

Was confused by a lot of the other reviews...

So, if you're not a Mormon (I'm not) and you listen to this book, you might be confused by the reviews here complaining about the poor pronunciation (I was). Get this - it turns out that apparently Mormons have *their own personal way* to pronounce Hebrew words! Who knew?

So, the narrator pronounces Hebrew words the way they're actually pronounced - which I guess just confuses the Mormons who've never heard the words said correctly before? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Any way - it's an interesting book.

incredible and thorough. Bushman gives the facts.

Bushman takes the facts and lays them out before the reader allowing them to make their own call and connect some dots on their own. she does not skip over the unpleasant portions of the history but gives as much of an objective view as I've read.