Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier

Written by Benjamin E. Park

Narrated by Bob Souer

An extraordinary story of faith and violence in nineteenth-century America, based on previously confidential documents from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Compared to the Puritans, Mormons have rarely gotten their due, often treated as fringe cultists or marginalized polygamists unworthy of serious examination. In Kingdom of Nauvoo, Benjamin E. Park excavates the brief, tragic life of a lost Mormon city, demonstrating that the Mormons are essential to understanding American history writ large. Using newly accessible sources, Park re-creates the Mormons' 1839 flight from Missouri to Illinois. There, under the charismatic leadership of Joseph Smith, they founded Nauvoo, which shimmered briefly-but Smith's challenge to democratic traditions, as well as his new doctrine of polygamy, would bring about its fall. His wife Emma, rarely written about, opposed him, but the greater threat came from without: in 1844, a mob murdered Joseph, precipitating the Mormon trek to Utah. Throughout his absorbing chronicle, Park shows that far from being outsiders, the Mormons were representative of their era in their distrust of democracy and their attempt to forge a sovereign society of their own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Mar 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781684577101

Reviews for Kingdom of Nauvoo

[Robert Witkin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a superb, detailed telling of the story of Nauvoo, and provides an excellent analysis of the successes and limits of the American democratic experiment in a nineteenth century religious context

[Colton Harding · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As a someone who grew up mormon/LDS but is no longer, I enjoyed this book. It’s a fair historical account full of interesting events. If you like American religious history this is a good read.

[khris · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Propaganda from a dangerous cult, that shouldn’t be read by anyone