Mormon Enigma?

[learning2gether]

I am mostly a lurker, but check the boards daily. I really enjoyed the LDS thread and learned alot from it. So I searched the library and found the book Mormon Enigma. I am just about done reading it and was wondering if anyone else had read it and would like to share their opinion. I'd especially like to know if LDS members that have read it feel it is a fair and accurate history. I had no idea that Mormons had gone thru so much persecution.

Edited February 23, 2011 by learning2gether

[Melinda in VT]

I read it about 10 years ago, when I was on my way out of Mormonism. I don't remember having concerns about its historical accuracy at the time, and I was reading a lot of Mormon history then.

[Julie in Austin]

I'm LDS, not an LDS history expert, but I believe that book to be substantially accurate. Some details about, for example, Emma and Eliza's relationship are disputed, but there is no doubt about the persecution that the Saints suffered.

[learning2gether]

Thank you for replying. As a wife and mother my heart really went out to Emma. Some of the letters or portions of letters that were shared in the book between her and Joseph Smith made me cry. Dh asked me why I was crying and I told him that it was because I knew JS was going to die, but Emma didn't. :crying:

[Veritaserum]

Thank you for replying. As a wife and mother my heart really went out to Emma. Some of the letters or portions of letters that were shared in the book between her and Joseph Smith made me cry. Dh asked me why I was crying and I told him that it was because I knew JS was going to die, but Emma didn't. :crying:

 

Yes, I have a lot of sympathy for Emma. She lived through very trying experiences! I've never read this book, though.

[Julie in Austin]

We visited Nauvoo for the first time last Fall; it was very sad to be there and think about what they went through.

[Annie]

We visited Nauvoo for the first time last Fall; it was very sad to be there and think about what they went through.

 

Navoo is a special place. I still remember the first time I toured Carthage jail as a little girl.

[DianeW88]

I've never read the book, but Emma Smith was a remarkable woman. Both she and Joseph suffered greatly for their convictions. With Joseph paying the ultimate price....martyrdom. And, yes....the persecution was intense for the Latter day Saints in general. In fact, in was only in the year 1976 that the state of Missouri revoked their "Mormon Extermination Order" of 1838. I guess none of us were safe there before then. :lol:

[Amira]

I'm another Mormon who read that book, and I thought it was a very good book. As Julie said, there are a few minor details that are disputed (and if you have an earlier edition, you'll find that there are some episodes based on documents that were later proved to be forged), but overall it is well-researched and a good book.