Outstanding coverage of a middle era in the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Park writes well for a general audience.

In “Kingdom of Nauvoo,” Benjamin Park’s extensive use of primary resources paints as detailed a picture as one can possibly get of this attempted new Jerusalem by the Mississippi River. Between the beginnings of polygamy as a major doctrine and another changes in the development of the faith and the efforts Joseph Smith and other LDS leaders put into trying to have their city be both a part of the existing US governing systems yet simultaneously as separate as could possibly be, this fascinating read makes it clear that although it lasted only a few years, the Nauvoo era is as critical a point as any in the history of the Latter Day Saints, if not one of its most formative periods.