Kingdom of Nauvoo (2020) is written for a more general audience, which should help this incredibly compelling series of events, pertaining to American democracy and religious history, get the attention it deserves. Although a more “popular” history, Park enlisted the mentorship and reviewing of his manuscript from some of the biggest names in contemporary Mormon Studies.
Drawing heavily from recently released confidential documents previously concealed by the LDS church, Park delivers a political drama that helps to more fully contextualize many of the reasons why early Mormons were so persecuted and rivaled by their neighbors in Missouri and Illinois. Few historical figures are faultless in this fascinating investigation into the limits and failings of democracy, in Jacksonian America in particular, but for the United States in the twenty-first century. (I frequently found myself obsessing over how this book would make for an incredible HBO political drama series.)
Giving more limited attention to the religious experiences of Latter-day Saints, which typically drive early Mormon history, Kingdom of Nauvoo, as its title suggests, centers around the political forces within and surrounding Mormonism. Park’s scholarship makes it incredibly difficult for one to reduce anti-Mormon sentiment to mere sectarian disagreement or some imagined wickedness in the…
