Review Essays The Book of Mormon and Early America’s Political and Intellectual Tradition

For a book that claims an epic scope and cosmological depth, the Book of Mormon has mostly received a rather parochial academic framework. What does the text tell us about Mormon conceptions of scripture? What does it reveal concerning Joseph Smith’s religious genius? How did Mormons use the book during the church’s first few decades? These are certainly important questions, and they have received—and will receive—the responses they deserve. But what if scholars took a page from Mormon and Moroni’s own approach and placed the narrative’s importance on a much broader scale—demographically, geographically, and chronologically?1 1. Terryl Givens talks about how Mormon and Moroni had a much broader vision of audience—that the Nephite record was more than just a familial and tribal record—than 168 Journal of Book of Mormon Studies Two books have recently and profitably embarked on such a cause by using the Book of Mormon as a crucial text in their broader narrative o