This book gives you a very good taste of all the natural alternative building techniques, and also where to find out more information on them. This is an excellent book for you to start researching all the different alternative building techniques or if your already well read on the subject it may introduce you to some new techniques or be a good refresher on the subject.

This is a great place to start your research if you are interested in natural building. Web sites, resorce books and organizations are listed at the end of each chapter. This book started my career in natural home building.

Today, around 5 million people on Earth work and live in buildings made of adobe, stone, rammed earth, straw bale, cob, wattle and daub and so forth. That is, most of our planetary brothers and sisters live in earthen houses that rely on renewable human labor and local resources like mud, straw, rock and tree. These houses are less energy intensive, more durable, and are often more esthetically pleasing than so-called "modern" homes, as this book shows.

"The Art of Natural Building" questions the environmental responsibility of a 5,000-sq-foot, 500,000-dollar house. As more and more people begin to make the kind of money it takes to buy their own American Dream house, we must question the feasibility our of contemporary building practices. Would it be possible cover the globe with modern homes? Building companies certainly think so, but aside from what a project of this immensity what mean environmentally, the resources are simply not available.

There is simply not enough lumber, brick, cement, and processed material to go around. Our building industry would gladly sell us into oblivion if it meant a buck or two in the short-haul, but we need to get away from this kind of thinking. We also need to consider the environmental impacts of our current practices. What are these impacts?

As this book reminds us, buildings already account for one quarter of the world's wood harvest, two-fifths of its material and energy use, and one-six of its fresh water usage. In the past 100 years the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen 27 percent, one-quarter of which has come the burning of fossil fuels just to provide energy for buildings. During the same period, the world lost more than 20 percent of its forest. Quite simply, our building philosophy is not sustainable; and with a populaiton of 6 billion rising at an incredible rate every year, reconstruction of this philosophy becomes all the more timely and important.

We can start by dropping out of the rat race and getting our hands dirty. Natural building is much more affordable, durable, environmentally responsible and estheticly pleasing than the track homes and skyscrapers advancing on the horizon. We can also avoid the loan-mortgage game which weds us to unfulfilling job and Sisyphus-like existence. We can create spaces that are non-toxic, unique, and ecologically sound. And perhaps most importantly, we can reconnect with Earth and the spirit of artisanship.

Along with the philosophy, you will discover a veritable treasure trove of natural building styles and ideas, from the radically new and innovative - like concept "earthship" - to the ancient and elegant, such as the living roof pictured on the cover. Architects need not apply, nor must you be good with your hands to fashion your own natural house. I consider myself very fortunate to have seen this book before investing in a home of my own. Like many people, I might have ended up working the rest of my life to pay for "a house without a clue."

By far and away, this is one of the most important books I have ever read. Philosophers dabble with theories of justice, beauty and truth, but with this book you will discover how all of these ideas can be BUILT into the very structure and fabric of your life. You will discover the ethics and aesthetics of building design and ecological living.

Filled to the brim with great references, links and some amazing photographs to stimulate your right brain, "The Art of Natural Building" is a must for anybody interested in saving the planet and saving a little money at the same time. The ultimate ecological building encyclopedia! A must read for all dwelling creatures.

---JOSEPH SMITH HAD GREAT MENTORS WITHIN HIS FAMILY, AND THEN HE WAS MENTORED BY DEITY.

Reading the revelations received by the prophet Joseph Smith are inspirational. But it is good to see the restoration from the point of view of his mother. She tells some stories that we wouldn't know from any other source (like the story of his leg operation at age 9).

I was mostly impressed with how much constant persecution and distraction Joseph Smith and his family had to endure ON AN ONGOING BASIS for the whole time Joseph Smith was prophet. It never let up. It's a miracle that he was able to accomplish anything at all.

Many stories were ones I had never heard before. One story that I had never heard before was the time Joseph Smith's dad was thrown in jail for 30 days for a minor debt he owed. They told him they would let him free if he would just deny his testimony. He stayed in prison the whole 30 days and converted another person while in jail.

By reading this book, we can have Joseph Smith and his family (especially his mother) be OUR OWN MENTORS, to help us to be the kind of people they were.

--George Stancliffe

This is one of the key primary sources in studying the life of Joseph Smith. Others include the History of the Church, edited by B. H. Roberts, and the Papers of Joseph Smith, edited by Dean C. Jesse.

We see the life of Joseph Smith only as a mother could see him. We also have a broader history of the Smith and Mack families, and we learn more about Alvin, Joseph Smith's brother who died due to medical malpractice.

In my opinion, this book is a must-read. Lucy Mack Smith's account of the constant challenges and incredible opposition she and her family faced, helped me regain courage to face my own small trials. Lucy Mack was a woman worth emulating. She had amazing faith in God, a deep love for family, and burning desire to impart the truth to all with whom she came in contact. I'm a better person for having "met her" through this great book.

This book is an absolute must for anyone studying Joseph Smith. To ignore this book would be like biographizing Lincoln, and ignoring the Gettysburg Address.

It is a collection of the 173 Nauvoo discourses of Joseph Smith, covering the years 1839-1844. It is an interesting mixture, since the Prophet wore so many hats. We normally see him as Prophet, Seer and Revelator, but he was also Mayor, General, and Presidential Candidate and was a Husband, Father and Lover. This book opens up Joseph Smith and we hear him as the early saints heard him.

For example, on 180-181, James Burgess includes some of the Prophet's rhetorical "Oh no!" and "Oh yes!" flourishes. Sometimes we sand down Joseph Smith, thinking that he has some rough redneck edges. But I imagine that he would be quite a personable speaker. Judging from these notes, I am quite convinced of it.

I confess that we do have the "distance problem." We have a few autograph manuscripts, so we must work through the scribes. Then again, this is no different than the Socrates-Plato perplexity, and we still recognize Socrates as a great thinker nonetheless.

The gem of this book is the six contemporary accounts of the King Follet Discourse. You see how the early historians amalgamated the text into a seamless whole, and can see that there was no deception involved with the synthesis of the talks into one whole.

The book is divided among the five years, 1839-1844, with the spectacular notes placed at the end of each year-section. This novelty allows of easy access to the information, and makes the book thoroughly user-friendly.

This is one of my favorite books. I continually refer to it to double-check the talks in the official History of the Church, and Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Admittedly, it is a technical book, and not for casual reading, but for the serious hard-core scholar, it is a library essential.

This book is not an end all to the Joseph Smith question, but it brings us closer to a solution.

This is an excellent book which uses contemporary journal accounts to give a presentation of what Joseph Smith, Jr. ^really^ taught in his sermons. The general practice of the 1840's was to have scribes who scribed speeches, sermons, etc., as they were being given in order to preserve an account of such things.

The source documents which are quoted in this book come from the collection of journals in the archives of the LDS church. The history of these documents is important in that when the division between the RLDS and LDS churches occurred after the death of Joseph Smith in Illinois in 1844, most of these journals were "arrested" from the possession of Smith's widow, Emma, by Brigham Young. She applied to receive them back but was denied. As a result, these journals made the trek west to Utah with the group that went there and became what is now known as the LDS (or "Mormon") church.

The book contains most of the recorded sermons and remarks made by the prophet during the 1839-1844 time period (the last 6 years of his life). However, some of them may not be completely accurate considering there is recorded court testimony by those who worked in the LDS historian's office after Joseph Smith's death to the effect that many of Joseph Smith's recorded sermons and history were altered to give credibility to some of the doctrines which the new leadership was wanting to teach. The largest amount of "changes" occurred, however, when the LDS official published accounts of Joseph Smith's history and teachings were made, using many of the journal accounts in this book as source texts. You will find that in many cases those "official" published sermons and statements read very differently than the journal accounts in this book.

It was found by going back to these journals that such things as the alleged 1844 "Rocky Mountain Prophecy" never occurred. The true wording of the prophet's statement gave no indication that the Latter Day Saints were ever to go to the Rocky Mountains. (And, as a point of fact, most of them didn't.)

A most interesting thing about this book of the prophet's teachings is that you will find no mention whatsoever of the doctrine of polygamy, which the Utah LDS later taught and claimed came from Joseph Smith. In this book you ^will^ however find his denunciation of the doctrine of polygamy as well as his repeated proclamation of innocence with regard to the accusations people were making against him at the time, namely of committing adultery in the name of religion and having several "secret" wives.

Within the footnotes of this book, however, you will find that the LDS editors make several attempts to pin the polygamy doctrine on Joseph Smith though there is no such actual reference to it in the text.

As a 4th-great nephew of Joseph Smith, I greatly appreciate the painstaking work of the editors in preserving the exact wording (including original punctuation and spelling) of the journal accounts that were available to them. Everyone of RLDS background or beliefs should be very interested in this book as it is the most accurate source available for the prophet's Nauvoo sermons.

Joseph Smith is an American prophet who restored Christ's church to the earth. I have read this book and the footnotes, carefully, 3 times. It contains the journal entries of persons who were actually present when Joseph Smith spoke. By having multiple accounts of different persons of the same discourse, one is able to more fairly judge what was said. The talks given are amazing: containing Christian doctrines that have lain dormant since before the time history calls the Dark Ages. The doctrines in these sermons represent a true Restoration of the doctrines taught by Jesus. The discourses are filled with references to the Bible and Jesus Christ. In addition, they contain much of history and give a feeling of events that unfolded in the United States of America in the years 1839 to 1844. The diary entries are left unchanged in grammar and punctuation and have the unmistakable imprint of authenticity.[There are also excellent annotations.] What did Joseph Smith teach? What was he like? In any true study one must go to the source and to eyewitness acccounts. Did God, our Father, have a plan in the finding, founding, and establishment of America? Yes, a land of religious freedom where the Gospel of Christ could be restored to the earth, after having been rejected by the people at and after the time of Jesus. Yes, the same Gospel, the same Church. Joseph Smith was a prophet just as Adam, Abraham, and Moses. The Lord has always worked through prophets. Joseph Smith is an American prophet and this book contains the Words of Joseph Smith.

I was not very enthusiastic about taking a Sociology course. As I started reading this text I began developing a more informed view of the world we live in and how it works. The book is certainly a masterpiece that tackles issues of global relevance in an objective way. I would recommend anyone to buy this book and teachers to use it as their text.

From the preeminent Fitzgerald scholar Matthew Bruccoli, this book's remarkable thoroghness and honesty is refreshing. Bruccoli gives the oft misunderstood Fitzgerald a human, albeit, reverent study, exploring beyond the overemphasized alcoholism into the realms of insecurity and sensitivity that had an indelible effect on Fitzgerald's work. The book reads well, without the burden of overly scholarly analysis, making it suitable reading either for doctoral study or simply for a summer beach day.

Joseph Smith was exposed as a liar in his own generation. He has not yet been vindicated, nor will he ever be.

He was a false prophet, a philanderer, a polygamist, a deceiver, a child-molester, etc...

His writings contradict themselves consistently.

Even his own mother called him a liar.

There is ZERO evidence for one claim of Joseph Smith. Archeology has not uncovered a shred of evidence to support the book of Mormon. His theology can be refuted by 10 year olds. His life was shady from start to finish. Did anyone see the golden tablet here claims were given to him by an Angel?

Jesus Christ revealed himself to us in the bible as God in the flesh. Joseph Smith rejected those claims, so he is a heretic.

This book is the best treasure house of Joseph Smith's teachings. In fact, it is an unofficial source of theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It relies heavily on the rather bulky "History of the Church," but also has some documents that are not included in the official history. It is well organized, and these newer editions have the index compiled by Dr. Robert Matthews.

"Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith" is the most important book any Latter-day Saint can own, outside of the Scriptures. His early teachings from Kirtland to the last days at Nauvoo are chronologically recorded and easily accessed. Included the famous "King Folette Discoures," and June 16, 1844 sermon. This is Joseph Fielding Smith's most imporatnt work ever.

This book is an embarrassment. Poorly organized, full of debased lies so incredible that one wonders rather the author himself actually believed them, and of such a personally vindictive nature that the reader feels as though he/she have just sat through a 330 page temper-tantrum. I can't believe anyone takes this book seriously.
The first obvious clue to the unreliability of this book is Bennett's 60-page tribute to himself. It's been said, and I agree wholeheartedly, that anyone who needs that much space to prove the good nature of his character is a scoundrel of the worst sort. And scoundrel he was. He sold college diplomas under auspicies of a bogus university. At one time he abandoned a wife and children in Ohio. He was famous for seducing young women with the promise that, should they get pregnant, he would perform an abortion on them (he was a doctor by trade). Yet these facts (and many others) are oddly left out of his first-chapter shrine to himself. And, wisely so, for if anyone knew the true character of the man, no one would have read the rest of his book.
So, what is contained in the rest of his book? Actually, there is very little of Bennett's own material. The bulk of the work is simply a series of very long excerpts from previous anti-Mormon books. So, what does one have to profit from reading this work? Absolutely nothing.

Overpriced for the cliche approach. I'm sure I should have purchased a more innovative work.

First of all this book is not cliche or a rehash of earlier material as other reviewers have stated. This book is also not very good. The book is written by John Bennett the first mayor of Nauvoo and one of the first major opponents of the Mormon movement. It is one of the first works of anti-mormon literature. I give it a five not because of any inherent academic achievement by Bennett (it has none the book was little more than a money making scheme and a political tool) but because of what we can learn about early mormon dissenters and their views of Mormonism. It also has great significance as a first hand account, albeit a biased one but all views of Mormonism are obviously biased one way or the other.