United by Faith: The Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith Family

Edited by Kyle R. Walker

http://www.byubookstore.com/ePOS?store=439&item_number=9781598114980&form=shared3%2fgm%2fdetail.html&design=439

Review by Dr. Craig R. Frogley

Kyle Walker wrote his doctoral dissertation for his PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy from Brigham Young University on the family dynamics of the Joseph Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith family. Therein he explored the best researched family values against the realities of the Smith Family’s success. In so doing he made available to us the “Smith Family Values” that we can use in our own families. In this new book he has invited some of the top researchers and authors on the family to contribute a biography of each senior family member, thereby elucidating these values in family context. Some of the Smith biographies are available in longer book form, while some are only targeted here, for the first time. Finding them all together in one book makes this volume worth owning.

Mark L. McConkie, who authored a book on Joseph Senior, writes the chapter on him. As with all the other previous authors the chapter is not just an excerpt from their book but a concisely written chapter for this compilation. I found each chapter delightful and detailed with insights that added wonderfully to the Smith Family literature. Other authors include Lavina Fielding Anderson who authored “Lucy’s Book”, she writes the chapter on Lucy Mack; Richard L. Anderson, author of several restoration histories, writes a unique chapter on Alvin; Gracia N. Jones, who is a descendant and author of several volumes on Joseph and Emma, adds a unique chapter on Sophronia; Ronald K. Esplin serves as the co-editor of the Smith Papers project and author of other history texts, has written the chapter on Hyrum Smith; Dean L. Jarman wrote his masters thesis on Samuel H. Smith and so teams with Kyle Walker to contribute the chapter on Samuel. Other contributors are well qualified historians who continue the text with chapters on Don Carlos and Lucy. Kyle Walker finishes the book with chapters on William and Katharine.