Joseph Smith's Gold Plates

Renowned historian Richard Lyman Bushman presents a vibrant history of the objects that gave birth to a new religion.According to Joseph Smith, in September of 1823 an angel appeared to him and directed him to a hill near his home. Buried there Smith found a box containing a stack of thin metal sheets, gold in color, about six inches wide, eight inches long, piled six or so inches high, bound together by large rings, andcovered with what appeared to be ancient engravings. Exactly four years later, the angel allowed Smith to take the plates and instructed him to translate them into English. When the text was published, a new religion wasborn. The plates have had a long and active life, and the question of their reality has hovered over them from the beginning. Months before the Book of Mormon was published, newspapers began reporting on the discovery of a "Golden Bible." Within a few years over a hundred articles had appeared. Critics denounced Smith as a charlatan for claiming to have a wondrous object that he refused to show, while believers countered by pointing to witnesses who said they saw theplates. Two hundred years later the mystery of the gold plates remains. In this book renowned historian of Mormonism Richard Lyman Bushman offers a cultural history of the gold plates.Bushman examines how the plates have been imagined by both believers and critics--and by treasure-seekers, novelists, artists, scholars, and others--from Smith's first encounter with them to the present. Why have they been remembered, and how have they been used? And why do they remain objects of fascination to this day? By examining these questions, Bushman sheds new light on Mormon history and on the role of enchantment in the modern world.

In the tradition of his magisterial biography of Mormonism's founder, Richard Bushman's history of Joseph Smith's Gold Plates begins with two earnest questions: how do we make sense of our subject in the context of its time and place in history? And how does that nineteenth-century culture so marvelously elucidated ultimately fail to fully explain the enigma-in this case those baffling gold plates? We see here a virtuoso historian at work who is not afraid to share his wonder as much as his learning. That combination of historical command and intellectual humility makes Bushman a joy to read. Terryl Givens, Professor of Religion and Literature Emeritus, University of Richmond
Joseph Smith's Gold Plates is a riveting cultural history of American religion's most enigmatic objects. Richard Bushman has long been known as the leading voice in Mormon studies for his skillful research, incisive analysis, and stylish prose. This book is true to form. For anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the history of Mormonism and American culture, it is indispensable. Sonia Hazard, Assistant Professor of Religion, Florida State University
This engaging and sometimes playful book explores an almost two-century-long obsession with proving or disproving the reality of a mysterious set of metallic plates that Joseph Smith claimed to have found in glacial hill in upstate New York. Bushman excels in capturing the inner compulsions and assumptions of the witnesses, writers, artists, and historians who have responded to the plates, showing that over time 'the golden plates' have indeed become enchanted. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Author of A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1830-1870
No other writer has so clearly and concisely gathered together the many treatments of Smith's gold plates, and Bushman's work is an important contribution in this sense, among others. Nicholas S. Literski, JD, PhD, for the Association for Mormon Letters, Twenty-First Century Mormon Literature
An excellent treatment of an important subject. Highly recommended. Choice
Bushman's amicable monograph offers an intriguing case study of how people over the last two centuries have responded when the spiritual and the material are fused. Grant Hardy, Journal of Religious History
This book is of interest to those fascinated by the Mormon tradition and anyone studying the world's various religious histories. Comparable stories abound and are an essential aspect of religious traditions. Franz Winter, Religious Studies Review

Richard Lyman Bushman is Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University and the author of many books, including Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling and Mormonism: A Very Short Introduction. He has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Charles Warren Center, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Huntington Library, the ShelbyCullom Davis Center, and the American Antiquarian Society. He co-founded and is chairman of the Board of the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts.

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