Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have been an active, (temple recommended holding) Mormon for over forty years. I have also studied Mormon history quite extensively. I find this book to be mostly accurate albeit a little subjective and biased at times. Most Mormons have a very limited understanding of their own church's history. The LDS church goes to great lengths to suppress any history of their religion that is not "faith promoting" and have even "changed" history to make it less troubling. They discourage members from reading material they deem inappropriate. Because of these policies most church members are taught a very simplified, sanitized and inaccurate version of history. Then when they read a book such as this that exposes some of what really happened, they lash out by exclaiming they are "lies" and "anti-Mormon" propaganda and they give the book a poor rating. If you look at the one star ratings of this book, you will notice that they are almost all by Mormons who feel the history of their church has been wrongly depicted. One of the other things you will notice from Mormons who are upset about what is written is that they will never say exactly WHAT is inaccurate. They will never be specific. Whenever I ask an active LDS to be specific about the "lies," they will usually just say "everything." Others will admit that they never really read the book, but they "heard" it was anti-Mormon propaganda. This type of angry terse response is understandable, however, considering the indoctrinization that they have gone through. Having a belief system challenged is very unsettling. Many Mormons, however, have learned and accepted some of the "shady" history of the Mormon church and are still active, believing members - with a somewhat different perspective. As a member of the LDS church who studies history, there is one thing that is very apparent, however. The history depicted by the LDS church has been so sanitized, suppressed, and changed, that is it is about 70% fiction. There is no way to get an accurate historical picture from LDS sources. That is why it is so ridiculous to state that the only accurate information is from the LDS church itself. In truth, that is about as far away as you can get. On the other hand, "anti-Mormon" sources are very biased as well. So the trick is to find as "neutral and objective" sources as possible. That is why my research usually involves tracking down original documents and sources that have not gone through the "LDS purification" process and to find sources from observers who were neither friend nor foe of the LDS religion. One Nation Under Gods utilizes sources that, in my estimation, are mostly objective and accurate (yes, there are some that are not). This is much better than what would be obtained from an LDS source. A perfect history is an impossibility. But Abanes does a pretty good job with this book.