The Joseph Smith Papers: Histories, Volume 2: Assigned Histories, 1831-1847

Read early Latter-day Saint history as written by some of those who lived it. Winner of the Award for Best Documentary Editing/Bibliography from the Mormon History Association in 2013.

This volume presents four histories written by church historians by assignment from Joseph Smith. The volume includes works by two men, John Whitmer and John Corrill, who both distanced themselves from the church before finishing their histories. The book also includes two histories published in Latter-day Saint newspapers, William W. Phelps's "Rise and Progress of the Church of Christ," and the Times and Seasons series "A History, of the Persecution, of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints, in Missouri." Together these histories provide a rich, multifaceted view of the early years of the Latter-day Saint movement, particularly the "Mormon War" of 1838.