According to Joseph Smith, the text of the Book of Mormon was revealed to him on a stack of gold plates, which he translated into English. In this book renowned historian of Mormonism Richard Lyman Bushman offers a cultural history of the gold plates. Bushman examines how the plates have been imagined by both believers and critics-and by treasure-seekers, critics, novelists, artists, scholars, and others-from Smith's first encounter with them to the present. Why havethey been remembered, and how have they been used? And why do they remain objects of fascination to this day?
