Joseph Smith and the Mormons

This is an odd book. I was very interested in the afterword where Van Sciver talks about being raised LDS and no longer believing, but wanting to write a “fair” book about Joseph Smith even though he knew it would still not win any friends among the LDS community. It's very jarring to just see really wild shit told and illustrated straightforwardly, and then to have the endnotes with citations and especially things like calling the Book of Mormon's depiction of Black people to be “indefensible.” I wish they had been on-page footnotes or something. Not really sure who this book is for–the non-LDS person who's interested in the Church will probably be turned off by it but so would the average devoutly LDS person. IDK.

It does feel like a notable...accomplishment? It's very long...