American Zion Audiobook By Benjamin E. Park cover art

American Zion

A New History of Mormonism

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American Zion

By: Benjamin E. Park
Narrated by: Tom Parks
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The first major history of Mormonism in a decade, drawing on newly available sources to reveal a profoundly divided faith that has nevertheless shaped the nation.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 in the so-called "burned-over district" of upstate New York, which was producing seers and prophets daily. Most of the new creeds flamed out; Smith's would endure, becoming the most significant homegrown religion in American history.

In American Zion Benjamin E. Park presents a fresh, sweeping account of the Latter-day Saints: from the flight to Utah Territory in 1847 to the public renunciation of polygamy in 1890; from the Mormon leadership's forging of an alliance with the Republican Party in the wake of the New Deal to the "Mormon moment" of 2012; and beyond. In the twentieth century, Park shows, Mormons began to move ever closer to the center of American life, shaping culture, politics, and law along the way.

A definitive, character-driven work of history, American Zion is essential to any understanding of the Mormon past, present, and future. But its lessons extend beyond the faith: as Park puts it, the Mormon story is the American story.

©2024 Benjamin E. Park (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Christianity History Ministry & Evangelism Preaching Religious Studies Sociology Mormon Royalty
Balanced Historical Perspective • Comprehensive Coverage • Pleasant Voice Quality • Engaging Narrative
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This is a great piece of historical work. Some of the names can be tricky for outsiders, but other than that the book is wonderful.

Great Book.

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I absolutely love the angle of enmeshment between American ideals/secular history and LDS heritage and religiosity. The perspectives of marginalized communities ring loudly in this overview making for a nuanced, critical, yet fair, understanding of the events of this American grown religion. There is a neutrality to this overview that is desperately needed in a society and cosmology blinded by binary thinking. Brush strokes on patriarchy, colonialism, imperialism, racism, and bigotry are all well documented and discussed here. Thank you so much for this text. I must have a physical copy on my shelf as a testament of crucial compelling, AMERICAN history.

The Historian Truth of Latter Day Saints

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This book is well researched and informative. it is honest but not an attack.
the only issue I had was that the reader misprounced several names.

entertaining and informative

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𝑰 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒎𝒅 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅. 𝑼𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒖𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝑫𝑺/ (𝒄𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝑱𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕/𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒐𝒏/𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕/𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒆𝒕𝒄...) 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒑𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒅𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒖𝒑𝒔 𝒂𝒎𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒄𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒆, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒏, 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒏𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒅𝒐𝒄𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚 . 𝑺𝒂𝒅

🄱🄰🄻🄰🄽🄲🄴🄳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐚𝐬 !!

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Dr Benjamin Park did a great job outlining this historical points and presenting the information with academic objectivity. I personally found the book very engaging.

Great historical review

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Well written modern account of the Mormons’ history. I learned many new things about the largest and most powerful religion where i grew up (Idaho).

Engaging book of history

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Ben Park masterfully captures much of the nuance across the width and breadth and depth of Mormon histories. He is respectful of Mormon beliefs and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while not glossing over controversy or thorny issues.

The Definitive Mormon History for the Next Generation

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interesting history of how internal and external pressures forged and formed LDS Faith. The author goes into great detail in painting a full and fair picture of the formation, growth, challenges, and leadership within the “Mormon” context. As a member of this church I learned quite a bit.

Incredible historical narrative of LDS Faith

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An excellent, well-researched, survey of Mormonism in America. The best book on the topic available.

The book’s narrative.

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Park takes the reader through the 200+ year long history of Mormonism and demonstrates convincingly how political and societal pressures takes Mormonism from upstart faith with heretical yet uniquely American doctrine to a hulking corporate bureaucracy.

The audiobook performance is lacking because it is AI. The narrator makes pronunciation errors for many proper names that a human reader should have researched beforehand (eg Moroni, Manti, Strangism, etc.) The quality of the voice is pleasant but never changes in quality like happens with human readers.

Eye opener

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