Criticism of Mormonism/Books/No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith

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A FAIR Analysis of: No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith A work by author: Fawn Brodie

Note: This is a review of claims and/or responses to misrepresentations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found in this work. The inclusion of an author's work here does not imply that he or she is "anti-Mormon," or that none of his or her works have value. Those who do not wish to examine the claims contained in what some would consider an "anti-Mormon" work are advised to proceed no further.

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Sub-articles

• Index of claims—
  Responses to specific critical or unsupported claims made in No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith indexed by page number. (Link)

About this work

Brodie's Joseph Smith is a more plausible character than the consummate fiend of the earlier school in that his type is much more likely to be met with on the street any Tuesday afternoon. But he is actually much less plausible as the man who accomplished what Joseph Smith did. Some kind of an inspired super-devil might have gotten away with some of the things he did, but no blundering, dreaming, undisciplined, shallow and opportunistic fakir could have left behind what Joseph Smith did, both in men's hearts and on paper.
— Hugh Nibley, No Ma'am, That's Not History

Reviews of this work

• Richard L. Anderson, "book review of Exploding the Myth About Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet by F.L. Stewart," Brigham Young University Studies 8 no. 2 (Winter 1968), 231–236.
• Louis Midgley, "The Brodie Connection: Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Smith," Brigham Young University Studies 20 no. 1 (Fall 1979), 59–70.
• Louis Midgley, "F. M. Brodie "The Fasting Hermit and Very Saint of Ignorance": A Biographer and Her Legend (Review of No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, The Mormon Prophet by Fawn McKay Brodie)," FARMS Review of Books 8/2 (1996): 147–230. off-site PDF link
• Louis Midgley, "The Legend and Legacy of Fawn Brodie (Fawn McKay Brodie: A Biographer's Life)," FARMS Review of Books 13/1 (2001): 21–72. off-site PDF link
• Louis Midgley, "Comments on Critical Exchanges (Review of: "A Hard Day for Professor Midgley: An Essay for Fawn McKay Brodie")," FARMS Review of Books 13/1 (2001): 91–126. off-site PDF link
• Hugh Nibley, No, Ma'am, That's Not History: A Brief Review of Mrs. Brodie's Reluctant Vindication of a Prophet She Seeks to Expose (Bookcraft: 1946). off-site
• Gary F. Novak, "Review of Dale Morgan On Early Mormonism: Correspondence and a New History by John Phillip Walker," FARMS Review of Books 8/1 (1996): 122–167. off-site PDF link

Further reading

FAIR web site

• FAIR Topical Guide: Brodie, Fawn FAIR link
  

FAIR wiki articles

A FAIR Analysis of Critical Works

• American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows— (Index of claims)
• An Insider's View of Mormon Origins — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
• Ashamed of Joseph: Mormon Foundations Crumble
• Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism/Inside Today's Mormonism — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Behind the Mask of Mormonism
• Specific works/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
• Specific works/By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus
• Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism
• Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 1
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 2
• Decker's Complete Handbook on Mormonism
• Early Mormonism and the Magic World View — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Specific works/Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mormonism
• Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History
• From Captain Kidd's Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism
• In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith — (Index of Claims)
• Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon
• Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record
• Is the Mormon My Brother?
• Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet
• Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon (2nd edition)—(Index of claims)
• Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined
• The Kingdom of the Cults (Revised) — (Index of claims)
• Leaving the Saints
• Letters to a Mormon Elder
• Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church — (Index of claims)
• Mormon America: The Power and the Promise — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Mirage: Seeing Through the Illusion of Mainstream Mormonism
• Mormonism 101—Index of claims
• Mormonism (Kurt Van Gorden)
• Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? — (Index of claims)
• The Mysteries of Godliness—A History of Mormon Temple Worship
• Nauvoo Polygamy — (Index of claims—Use of sources—Prejudicial language—Presentism—Mind reading—Censorship—Romance—Assumptions—Magick)
• New Approaches to the Book of Mormon
• New Mormon Challenge
• No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith — (Index of claims)
• One Nation Under Gods — (Index of claims—Use of Sources—Prejudicial language—Absurd claims—Presentism—Mind reading—Rewording—Omissions—Sarcasm)
• The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844
• Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example — (Index of claims)
• Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess
• The Changing World of Mormonism — (Index of claims)
• Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon
• Under the Banner of Heaven — (Index of claims)
• Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture