Joseph Smith Scholar Delivers Talk about the Golden Plates at USU

Richard L. Bushman, one of the nation’s preeminent scholars of early American and Mormon history, will return to Utah State University March 22 to deliver a talk “The Many Lives of Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates.”  The event is sponsored by USU’s Religious Studies Program and is open to the public.

Bushman is the Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University and an award-winning author of books on early American social, political and cultural history. His first, “From Puritan to Yankee: Character and Social Order in Connecticut, 1690-1765,” won the prestigious Bancroft Prize, often considered the highest honor by historians. In 1984 and 2005, He won the Evans Biography Award administered by USU’s Mountain West Center for Regional Studies for his books “Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism” and “Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.”

Bushman currently serves as an editor of the Joseph Smith Papers — a project of the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to research and publish all works by Joseph Smith, Jr. His talk at USU will focus on the historical and cultural significance of the gold plates Smith said he translated to write the Book of Mormon.

“Joseph Smith claimed to have the gold plates of the Book of Mormon in his possession less than 21 months, yet the plates have lived on in the imagination of believers and unbelievers alike,” Bushman said, adding that they have been featured in Pulitzer Prize winning plays and children’s songs. “What gives these plates their longevity and vitality in so many venues?”

Bushman has served as president of the Mormon History Association and has held Guggenheim, Huntington, National Humanities Center and National Endowment for Humanities fellowships.

“He is considered one of the most influential biographers of Joseph Smith,” said Philip Barlow, the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at USU. “The talk will be his first public discussion of the topic.”

The event will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in room 130 of the Eccles Science Learning Center on the USU Logan campus. 

Related links:

• USU Religious Students Program
• USU Department of History
• USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Source: USU Religious Studies Program

Contact: Phil Barlow, (435) 797-3406, philip.barlow@usu.edu