048: Richard Bushman Part 2 - The Art of History, Joseph Smith's First Vision Stories, and Joseph's Participation in Folk Magic and Treasure Digging

In this episode we tackle 4 main topics. First, brother Bushman
provides a high level review of the major Joseph Smith biographies
that preceded Rough Stone Rolling, including Fawn Brodie's "No man
knows my history." Next, brother Bushman discusses the art of
writing history, and the challenges involved in trying to arrive at
"the facts" and "the truth" for both historians, and readers of
history. Finally, we discuss in depth the first 2 of our top 10
tough Joseph Smith issues: 1) The multiple and somewhat varying
accounts of Joseph Smith's first vision story, and 2) Joseph
Smith's involvement in folk magic and treasure digging.