Joseph Smith: rough stone rolling

[In this book, the author] delivers a ... performance. The book is argued, Joseph Smith emerges as neither hero nor charlatan, but as a strangely gifted yet thoroughly believable product of his time and place. [The book is an] informed study of America's larger-than-life Prophet and Seer, Joseph Smith. It is also an important history of Mormonism's founding era. In [the book, the author] tells how Smith formed a new religion from the ground up. Moving beyond the popular stereotype of Smith as a colorful fraud, the book explores the inner workings of his personality - his personal piety, his temper, his affection for family and friends, and his incredible determination. It describes how he received revelations and why his followers believed them.-Dust jacket.

Originally published: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, ©2005.

Joseph Smith family, to 1816 -- First visions, 1816-27 -- Translation, 1827-30 -- New bible, 1830 -- Church of Christ, 1830 -- Joseph, Moses, and Enoch, 1830 -- Kirtland visionaries, January-June, 1831 -- Zion, July-December 1831 -- Burden of Zion, 1832 -- Exaltation, 1832-33 -- Cities of Zion, 1833 -- Character of a Prophet, 1834 -- Priesthood and church government, 1834-35 -- Visitors, 1835 -- Texts, 1835 -- Strife, August-December 1835 -- Order of heaven, January-April 1836 -- Reverses, April 1836-January 1838 -- Trials, January-July 1838 -- War, August-December 1838 -- Imprisonment, January-August 1839 -- Washington, September 1839-June 1840 -- Beautiful place, April 1840-April 1841 -- Temporalities and spiritualities, 1841 -- Stories of eternity, spring 1842 -- Perils, May-December 1942 -- Thickets, 1843 -- City and kingdom, 1843-44 -- Confrontations, January-June 1844.