Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/728

 708 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The Story of the Mormons, From the Date of Their Origin to the Year igoi. By WILLIAM ALEXANDER LINN. New York : The Macmillan Co. Pp. 637. $4.

THE object of the work, as stated in the preface, is "to present a consecutive history of the Mormons from the day of their origin to the present writing, and as a secular, not as a religious, narrative." The work is a careful research based upon materials derived from both Mormon and non-Mormon sources. Several pages of the preface are devoted to explanatory statements regarding the sources from which the material used has been drawn. Throughout the work the author has indicated, by means of footnotes, the authority for the materials used. An unusually complete table of contents and index render the book a convenient one for reference. It is illustrated with facsimile prints of the Kinderhook plates, the title-page of the first edition of the Mormon Bible, the Book of Abraham, and an altered Kirtland bank- note.

The work is divided into six books, the first of which treats of the origin of the Mormons. The following four books are devoted, respec- tively, to an account of their migration to and life in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, and their final migration to Utah. The last book, which con- sists of twenty-six chapters, treats of their life in Utah.

In referring to the situation out of which Mormonism arose, the author sees no cause for surprise in its remarkable development as a reli- gious organization. That which seems wonderful to him is " its success in establishing and keeping together in a republic like ours a membership who acknowledge its supreme authority in politics as well as in religion, and who form a distinct organization which does not conceal its pur- pose to rule over the whole nation." The life of Joseph Smith is traced from his boyhood in Vermont, where he professed to have his father's gift in the use of the divining-rod, to the time when he declares him- self a prophet and begins to found a new religion. The author shows that the deciding event in the career of Joseph Smith was a trip to Susquehanna county, Pa., where he obtained the idea of becoming a "gazer," and where he probably first met Sydney Rigdon, whom the author shows to be the "real originator of the whole scheme for a new church." The remainder of Book I is devoted to a history of the Mormon Bible, in which the author shows the various factors that were involved, and the especially prominent part taken by Sydney Rigdon, who is not generally recognized as having anything to do with