The Saints and the State: The Mormon Troubles in Illinois

Abstract

historiography concerning Mormon religious history is limited. While there been a lot of recent work on the history of Nauvoo and the early Mormon religion, the chapter on “ Joseph Smith and the New Politics of Belief ” draws largely from older biographies of the prophet and to sketch as something of a conman. James Simeone ’ s The Saints and the State o ff ers a thought-provoking analysis of state for-mation in the antebellum United States. While the analysis of Mormonism is limited, this text o ff ers an incredibly rich depiction of those who considered the Latter-Day Saints a threat and how they utilized power in the emerging democracy of antebellum Illinois.