History of the Church: of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Collection # 2, Volumes Iv & V

Publisher Marketing: Collection #2 - Includes Volumes IV & V of Joseph Smith's written History of the Church. This history was produced by assignment from Church leaders at the beginning of the 20th century. The History editor was B. H. Roberts, a prominent LDS leader. Roberts' assignment was to take the manuscript history produced by Joseph Smith (1805-1844) and his clerks between 1838 and 1857 and publish it together with explanatory notes. The history was written as though dictated by Joseph Smith, however he dictated only a small portion of it. The bulk of the manuscript was based on Church records, Church newspaper excerpts and journals of Joseph Smith kept by various men who recorded his activities as well as the diary entries of men who were with Joseph Smith at various times and places or who performed Church missionary efforts, or other tasks of historical importance. The first six volumes of the history cover the life of Joseph Smith, while volume seven concerns the period of time from the death of Joseph Smith (1844) through 1847 and part of 1848. The purpose of volume seven was to cover various matters about and resulting from Joseph Smith's death as well as the important problem of who would succeed him as the leader of the Church. The manuscript history was completed only up to 1838 when Joseph Smith was killed. The bulk of the manuscript history text was written following his death. Contributor Bio:  Smith Jr, Joseph Daymon M. Smith holds a doctoral degree in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. He authored The Book of Mammon: A Book About A Book About The Corporation That Owns The Mormons, a work drawn from experiences at the LDS Church Office Building. And by analyzing never-before published materials, his dissertation The Last Shall Be First And The First Shall Be Last: Discourse And Mormon History, sheds new light on the history and cultural effects of the corporate practice and editorial process called "Correlation." These earlier books are described in an award-winning podcast on MormonStories.org, and in a nine-part series for ByCommonConsent.com awarded best historical post of 2010. Contributor Bio:  Roberts, B H Joseph Smith, Jr. (December 23, 1805 - June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism. When he was twenty-four, Smith published the Book of Mormon; and by the time of his death fourteen years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and had founded a religion and a religious culture that continues to the present. Smith was born in Sharon, Vermont, but by 1817, he had moved with his family to western New York, a site of intense religious revivalism during the Second Great Awakening. According to Smith, he experienced a series of visions, including one in which he saw "two personages" (presumably God the Father and Jesus Christ) and others in which an angel directed him to a buried book of golden plates inscribed with a Judeo-Christian history of an ancient American civilization. In 1830, Smith published what he said was an English translation of these plates, the Book of Mormon. The same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian church. Members of the church were later called "Latter Day Saints," or "Mormons." In 1831, Smith and his followers moved west, planning to build a communalistic American Zion. After Smith was imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois, he was killed when a mob stormed the jailhouse. Smith published many revelations and other texts that his followers regard as scripture. His teachings include unique views about the nature of God, cosmology, family structures, political organization, and religious collectivism. His followers regard him as a prophet comparable to Moses and Elijah, and he is considered the founder of several religious denominations, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ. Brigham Henry Roberts (March 13, 1857 - September 27, 1933) was a Mormon leader, historian, and politician who published a six-volume history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and was denied a seat as a member of United States Congress because of his practice of plural marriage.