A review by its_kievan
Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier by Benjamin E. Park

emotional informative fast-paced

4.0

In 1839, a small group of refugees fleeing religious persecution founded the city of Nauvoo, Illinois. Those refugees were the first members of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (better known as Mormons), and Nauvoo was to be their new holy kingdom on Earth. Yet, barely five years later, their prophet was dead, their community hopelessly divided by the doctrine of polygamy, and their people forced by armed mobs to flee into the wilderness. Park lays out, in excellent detail, the people and politics that tore apart one of the greatest religious experiments in American history.

An excellent little character-driven history about a fascinating and criminally neglected slice of US history. Park does an excellent job of bringing people and places to life, and keeping the pace of the story flowing - two things that are often lacking when it comes to history books. He does assume a fair bit of knowledge about the origins and early doctrine of Mormonism, and I wasn't convinced by his attempts to tie Nauvoo to a broader thesis about American democratic culture, but those are mostly minor quibbles. A fairly beginner-friendly book backed by a huge amount of research and a clear respect and empathy for the people involved without whitewashing the atrocities of the period.