Advance Praise for Reluctant Polygamist
For an unexpected look at the secrets lurking around Nauvoo in the days of Joseph Smith, I highly recommend the Reluctant Polygamist as a very good place to start. Meg Stout has provided us the opportunity to see Joseph in a new light. — Gerald A. Smith, historian, blogger
Praise for Meg Stout’s Faithful Joseph series at millennialstar.org, Dec ‘13 – Aug ‘14
[Meg Stout] surprised me when she mentioned that her studies had suggested to her the possibility that Joseph Smith rarely consummated his plural marriages — with even a chance that maybe he consummated none of them. Now of course this view easily falls into the ‘too good to be true’ category, so I politely asked her a few more questions out of curiosity but also to gently challenge her.
She promptly proceeded to bury me.
As I stood gasping for air and trying to spit factoids out of my teeth, I realized that this wasn’t just someone that was naively choosing to see what she wanted to see by ignoring all inconvenient facts. Meg was clearly someone that had done her homework and knew what she was talking about. — Bruce Nielson, Dec 16, 2013
__________________________
Meg deserves more praise than could ever be given for her faithful Joseph series… Her inclusion of John C. Bennett’s participation in the history of Nauvoo was one of the most original yet seemingly obvious and logical aspects of her series… How other scholars glossed over this despite the overwhelming evidence presented by Meg is likely one of the tragedies of how the traditional narratives have been developed. — Jess W.
__________________________
Thank you! Your posts continue to provide an astounding amount of information. — John S.
__________________________
Meg, thank you for some basic common sense on this… — Geoff B.
__________________________
A tad more complicated than the ‘history” we usually hear about, but very informative and useful. — John H.
__________________________
Thank you Meg Stout for putting together such an interesting, plausible, and faithful reconstruction of events! — Tom D
__________________________
I stayed up all night reading your faithful Joseph posts… really great stuff. I don’t know how to say this. It’s like watching Ancient Aliens on the history channel or a 9/11 conspiracy documentary, but not silly. — Sam C.
__________________________
I have personally found [Meg’s] narrative to be the *only* one that actually makes any kind of sense from a faithful perspective, tying up all sorts of loose ends. — Jeff C.
__________________________
Your ability to gather facts and interpret them in a way that feels genuine to who I believe Joseph (and the others mentioned) to really be is invaluable. So. Invaluable. This feels more complete than other pieces I’ve found; more transparent, and, as mentioned, I think does a better job filling in the information gaps with guesswork that is both natural and intuitive. — Mickelle
__________________________
Just finished your series at Millennial Star and wanted to say how much I appreciate the mental effort that went into your thoughtful examination of LDS polygamy. I’m one of those who struggled for years with the cognitive dissonance of keeping a picture of the Joseph who had the first vision and translated the Book of Mormon alongside a picture of the Joseph who took 27 wives in my head… I will be one of the first in line to buy the book, which I believe will be a landmark in Mormon literature. — Michael K.
__________________________
Your series has opened my eyes to possibilities that I had never considered and which, in light of everything, make perfect sense. So count me among those who finds the study of this history as being full of secret honor and selfless sacrifice. I love that quote. So thank you and know how much I look forward to each post in this series. — Joey K.
__________________________
[Meg’s] analysis of the cultural setting in which polygamy was introduced and the details of the life of her polygamous ancestor add several new dimensions to our understanding of polygamy… — Jeff L.