Carthage Conspiracy — Paperback (Oaks & Hill)

The jail at Carthage is remembered. The trial that followed is not. Not until you open this book. Carthage Conspiracy is the landmark account of the murder of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum, and of the murder-conspiracy trial that followed. Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill set that infamous June day inside Mormon and American legal history, and ask a harder question underneath the drama: what does justice look like when a crime is politically motivated and popularly supported? This is not a hagiography and not a pamphlet. It is careful historical reconstruction, across the courtroom, culture, and conflict, for readers who want the real story. Winner of a Mormon History Association Best Book award. This listing is the standard University of Illinois Press paperback — the working scholar’s and serious reader’s edition. It is not the leather-bound Gryphon Editions collector’s volume sold separately on this store. If you want the gilt-and-leather presentation copy, choose that listing; if you want the book you can mark up, lend, and live with, this is the one. About the book Oaks and Hill treat the general problem of Mormon/non-Mormon conflict alongside the specific story of the Prophet, his brother, and the men accused of their deaths. They place Carthage jail and the subsequent trial in the wider stream of American legal practice on the frontier, without losing the human stakes of the case. The result has remained a cornerstone of Restoration history shelves for decades. What readers and historians have said “One of the best books to appear on Mormon history in years.” — Charles S. Peterson, Journal of American History “Carthage Conspiracy is a superb work of historical analysis and reconstruction.” — David Brion Davis, Times Literary Supplement “This book is a ‘must.’” — Jerry Jensen, Dialogue About the authors Dallin H. Oaks wrote this work as an attorney, jurist, and legal scholar (including service as a professor and later as president of Brigham Young University). He has been a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1984. This volume reflects his earlier career in law and history, not later ecclesiastical office. Marvin S. Hill (1928–2016) was a professor of history at Brigham Young University and the author of Quest for Refuge, among other works in Mormon and American history. Edition details Format: Paperback (University of Illinois Press) Authors: Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill Pages: 272 Trim: 6 × 9 inches ISBN-13: 978-0-252-00762-0 Paperback publication: May 1979 (hardcover first edition, 1975) Award: Mormon History Association Best Book Condition: New