Appearance
No man knows my history: The life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet
I find it interesting that sides are still being chosen both attacking and defending a work so old and obviously out-of-date.This is especially puzzling when one considers all the more current works written on both sides of the fence, using better historical methods and better research procedures that have been published since Brodie's revision of her book in 1971 [that's 39 years people-wake-up!!]There are many problems with the work Brodie did, as well as many insights and benefits to her work: Joseph Smith (1945), Thaddeus Stevens (1959), Sir Richard Burton (1967), Thomas Jefferson (1974) and Richard Nixon (1981), still generate both acclaim and criticism. The criticism usually centers on her use of Freudian psychobiographical techniques to ascertain a historical figure's experiences and motivations through a psychological interpretation of their writings.Although this seminal work is still the most analytical and provocative biography written on Smith, the following four problems are conspicuous with Brodie's research:1) Before beginning her examination of sources, she was already convinced that Joseph Smith's religious experiences were unauthentic. Thus, the volume's naturalistic perspectives (along with its limiting choices of explanatory categories) were preconceived before the research began.2) She also chose not to access the documents in the LDS Historical Archives at Salt Lake City. Consequently, her volume lacks both the balance and information available from the single largest collection on Mormonism.3) By ignoring the aforementioned collection she was ignorant of the fact that most of Joseph Smith's papers and diaries were written by scribes in first-person for him, thus, her psychobiographical theories were actually based on other people's writings; and4) Her libraries of research were located mainly in New York, Connecticut, Chicago and Missouri, which in the 1940's were chiefly anti-Mormon collections. Ergo, her book reflects an anti-Mormon attitude.A more balanced but less piercing treatment may be found in Bushman's, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.If you really want to know the background of both Brodie and her first work, an excellent book that details both is Newell G. Bringhurst's, Reconsidering No Man Knows My History.Two scholarly LDS reviews on Brodie's volume are: Marvin S. Hill, "Secular or Sectarian History? A Critique of `No Man Knows My History,'" Church History 43 (March 1974) 78 96; and Louis Midgley, "The Brodie Connection: Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Smith," Brigham Young University Studies 20 (Fall 1979) 59-67.
No man knows my history: The life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet
No Man Knows My History was a direct attack on critical Mormon beliefs about Joseph Smith. In 1946, The Improvement Era, the official periodical of the Church, said that many of the book's citations arose from doubtful sources and that the biography was "of no interest to Latter-day Saints who have correct knowledge of the history of Joseph Smith." The "Church News" section of the Deseret News provided a lengthy critique that acknowledged the biography's "fine literary style" and then denounced it as "a composite of all anti-Mormon books that have gone before."BYU professor and LDS historian and apologist Hugh Nibley challenged Brodie in another booklet, No, Ma'am, That's Not History, asserting that Brodie had cited sources supportive only of her conclusions while conveniently ignoring others. Brodie herself thought the Deseret News pamphlet "a well-written, clever piece of Mormon propaganda", but she dismissed the ultimately more popular No, Ma'am, That's Not History as "a flippant and shallow piece."Brodie's controversial depiction of Joseph Smith is in the same vein as her other Psychoanalysis works of fiction. I say fiction because the psychoanalytical babbling of the insane is just that - psychoanalytical babbling without substance or fact. Brodie incorporates in her work Freudian psychology. Psychoanalysis is a work of the devil for sure, based on dreams and unprovable and unsupported assumptions. Her psycho biography of Thomas Jefferson became a best-seller base on the same psychoanalytical babbling And most important, Brodie's study of the early Richard Nixon, completed while she was dying of cancer, demonstrated the hazards of psycho biography in the hands of an author who loathed her subject. Brodie grew up disliking the LDS religion with full support from her mother. Brodie had access to church historical records because of her family connections to the church. She deviously betrayed the trust of church historians by misusing and misrepresenting the material.Psychoanalysis is a body of knowledge developed by Sigmund Freud and his followers, devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior. Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the patient verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst formulates the unconscious conflicts causing the patient's symptoms and character problems, and interprets them for the patient to create insight for resolution of the problems.Both Fawn Brodie and her husband subjected themselves to psychoanalysis, he for insomnia and she for chronic mild depression and sexual problems. (Bernard's employer, the RAND Corporation, paid most of the bills.) If the problems of everyday life had been insufficient to maintain Brodie's interest in psychology, there was the case of her mother, who during this period attempted suicide three times, the second by cutting herself with a Catholic crucifix and the third (which succeeded) by setting herself on fire.One should be careful what they read and adopt as gospel truth. The infamous Mark Hofmann read Brodie's No Man Knows My History before he bombed and kill two prominent Salt Lake City residents in 1985. Hofmann set out to destroy the LDS church. Hofmann's favorite text to discredit the Mormon church was Fawn's Brodie's No Man Knows My History. In my opinion Brodie's book is a work of the devil for sure, based on the psychoanalytical babbling of the insane.
No man knows my history: The life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet
This book is a disgrace to being scholarly and should not even be included a website that sells such great scholarly works as Steinbeck. It is like reading a lot of conjecture and speculation with no references but to other sources that do the same. All of her references are by either antagonistic sources or are taken out of context by real LDS sources. It is a flat-out waste of money. If you think you will find something fair and balanced you are in for a suprise.
No man knows my history: The life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet
This book has been around for a long time because people who do not know the facts are deceived by it. This book takes quotes out of context, mixes them with pieces of other quotes, then tries to make the reader believe they were said in connection with each other. Many dates are wrong. The author reads into an event her own explanation and then says that is the only reason that event occured. Truth is totally obscured in this book. A waste of time and money. A "friend" loaned a copy to me and now I'm glad because I could then see what a piece of junk it is.
No man knows my history: The life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet
The so-called facts in this book have been debunked by Hugh Nibley's book, "No Ma'am, That Ain't History."
No man knows my history: The life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet
Before buying be aware that this book was written by a pro Mormon and that the majority of the available information was ignored by Ms. Brodie as the sources available were mostly "biased" in her opinion. "Biased" in the author's opinion was testimony which was either critical of Mr. Smith or originated from a non-Mormon, or was/is usual, both. I know of no real biography that is balanced, but quite honestly, balanced views of Jo Smith ARE negative, a definite problem for the "balanced" view.