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Podcast: Mormon Land
Episode: A new biography finds both “prophet” and “scoundrel” in Joseph Smith | Episode 394
Description: In 2012, scholar John Turner published an award-winning biography of Brigham Young, a mountain of a man in Western Americana. But there remained a bigger fish to pursue, namely Joseph Smith, the “white whale” of Mormon history, the religious icon who gave birth to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Turner’s voyage is now complete and the resulting book, “Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet,” is available this month.
Infused with the latest scholarship, the volume reveals a Brother Joseph who is sometimes playful, sometimes reckless, sometimes incensed, often inspired...