Benjamin E. Park, "Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier" (Norton, 2020)

New Books in American Studies · Apr 2, 2020 · 30m

In Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier (W. W. Norton, 2020), Benjamin E. Park, an assistant professor at Sam Houston State University, examines a neglected part of the Mormon past -- the establishment of a thriving Latter-day Saint metropolis in Illinois. In Nauvoo, Park argues, the Mormons, under the leadership of Joseph Smith, wanted to build their kingdom along the Mississippi. In covering the Saints' time in Illinois, Park analyzes how the Mormon experience in Nauvoo not only transformed some of the religion's core religious beliefs but he…