Over the past thirty years, an enormous amount of research has been conducted into Mormon origins--Joseph Smith's early life, the Book of Mormon, the prophet's visions, and the restoration of priesthood authority. Longtime LDS educator Grant H. Palmer suggests that most Latter-day Saints remain unaware of the significance of these discoveries. He therefore gives a brief survey of the literature for all who have ever wanted to know more about the New Mormon History.

He finds that what we take for granted as literal history has been tailored over the years for missionary purposes--slightly modified, added to, one aspect emphasized over another--to the point that the original narratives have been nearly lost. What was experienced as a spiritual event, something from an entirely different dimension, has been often refashioned as if it had been a physical, objective occurrence. This is not how the first Saints interpreted these events. Historians have reevaluated basic concepts surrounding these foundational stories and restored elements, including a nineteenth-century world view, that have been misunderstood, if not forgotten....