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104 The Michigan Historical Review disjuncture between sections. Still, Dowd’s perceptive analysis ably establishes that rumor revealed deep-seated concerns and shaped both events and narratives. Beyond its many contributions to early American history, Groundless should encourage scholars to pay closer attention to the significance of the rumors lurking in their sources. Jacob F. Lee Indiana University Don Faber. James Jesse Strang: The Rise and Fall of Michigan’s Mormon King Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016. Pp. 221. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Paper: $28.95. On 27 June 1844, Joseph Smith, the prophet and founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was shot in a jail in Carthage, Illinois, and the Mormon community was left without an obvious successor. Over the next two years, Brigham Young would claim the mantle of the prophet and lead the majority of Latter-day Saints west, out of the United States to the Great Salt Basin, a territory of Mexico. In later years church historians would narrate this exodus and Young’s leadership as a seamless transfer of power and the inevitable building of Zion in what would become Utah. But that story, while powerful for mainstream Latter-day Saints, does not represent the turmoil and uncertainty of the succession crisis in the early days after Smith’s death. At least four men vied to lead the Mormons, yet only one, James Strang—a recent convert—saw and spoke with angels, found golden plates with new scripture, and received a highly-contested letter of appointment from Joseph Smith. Strang, who initially distinguished himself from Brigham Young, his fiercest competitor, by rejecting plural marriage, would eventually convince over 12,000 people of his rightful position and lead 2,500 of them to Beaver Island, Michigan, where he established a kingdom. While on Beaver Island, he crowned himself king, built a temple, established the Law of the Lord for both believers and gentiles (as non-Mormon residents were called), and instituted plural marriage. He was also elected to the Michigan House of Representatives two times. For many reasons he angered “gentiles” living on Beaver Island, Mackinac Island, and what is now Charlevoix. In 1856, disaffected followers, with the implicit support of the federal government, assassinated him. Within a few weeks, all of his followers were forcibly removed from the island Book Reviews 105 and their land and property repossessed by the mob that pushed them out at gunpoint. This is the remarkable story recounted in Don Faber’s new book, James Jesse Strang: The Rise and Fall of Michigan’s Mormon King. Faber’s biography pulls together primary sources and available scholarship to present a compelling history of the man and his unique abilities to build a vibrant, yet short-lived, religious community in the middle of Lake Michigan. A colorful character—to say the least—Strang has drawn the attention of both religious insiders and outsider scholars who have sought to understand his place in LDS history, Michigan history, and US religious history. At the outset of the book, Faber acknowledges the difficulty of uncovering the “real” Strang, who is often made into a caricature in either wildly hagiographical or hostile writings. As Faber explains, “I want to present the historical Strang stripped of myth, demonization, and popular fancy” (p. xii). To his credit, he achieves this goal through a careful sifting of extant materials and a balanced tone throughout the narrative. The author never takes a position on the legitimacy of Strang’s claims, rather “the final judgment is left to the reader” (p. xii). Beautifully written, Faber’s account brings one of Michigan’s most interesting citizens to life and explains the social and political context of the rise and fall of a religious king in antebellum America. Amy DeRogatis Michigan State University Mark S. Fleisher. Living Black: Social Life in an African American Neighborhood. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2016. Pp. 170. Notes. References. Paper: $29.95. Mark Fleisher’s Living Black: Social Life in an African American Neighborhood introduces the reader to central concepts in anthropology through the lens of one researcher’s personal experience. This eminently readable book has a compelling cadence which carries...

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