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.