Joseph Smith for President

Joseph Smith for President takes readers inside one of the most unlikely presidential campaigns in American history. Spencer McBride shows us Joseph Smith parading on the shoulders of his followers, issuing an anti-slavery platform, and asking to be put at the head of a 100,000-man army. This is an eloquent and richly detailed portrait of the political conflict between the early Latter-day Saints and their political opponents. * John Turner, author of Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet * Spencer McBride obliges us to see Joseph Smith in a stark new light: not merely as a prophet who was assassinated, but as a presidential candidate whose campaign could not be separated from the force of religious persecution. From this illuminating, deeply researched account emerges a picture of the dark underbelly of states' rights abuses and mob violence that shaped the election of 1844. It's a story well-suited to our own intolerant times. * Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America * America has had no shortage of quixotic presidential candidates who, in retrospect, reflect broader cultural anxieties. But perhaps no campaign appeared as impractical or unlikely as the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith's in 1844. In this meticulously detailed and clearly written book, Spencer McBride has dissected this seemingly outlandish episode in order to reveal wider lessons about the American culture that made it possible as well as the political tradition that connects it to today. * Benjamin E. Park, author of Kingdom of Nauvoo * In Spencer McBride's skilled hands, the story of Joseph Smith's quixotic 1844 presidential campaign reveals new aspects of the radically circumscribed nature of liberty in the American Republic. This marvelous volume combines a compelling history of the early LDS Church with a pointed critique of the myth of American religious freedom. * Amy S. Greenberg, author of Lady First: The World of First Lady Sarah Polk *