As the sacred text of a modern religious movement of global reach, The Book of Mormon has undeniable historical significance. That significance, this volume shows, is inextricable from the intricacy of its literary form and the audacity of its historical vision. This landmark collection brings together a diverse range of scholars in American literary studies and related fields to definitively establish The Book of Mormon as an indispensable object of Americanist inquiry not least because it is, among other things, a form of Americanist inquiry in its own right--a creative, critical reading of "America." Drawing on formalist criticism, literary and cultural theory, book history, religious studies, and even anthropological field work, Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon captures as never before the full dimensions and resonances of this "American Bible."

Introduction: Learning to Read with The Book of Mormon, Jared Hickman and Elizabeth FentonPart One: Plates and PrintChapter 1: The Ghost and the Machine: Plates and Paratext in The Book of Mormon, R. John WilliamsChapter 2: Books Buried in the Earth: The Book of Mormon, Revelation, and the Humic Foundations of the Nation, Jillian SayreChapter 3: Orson Pratt's Enduring Influence on The Book of Mormon, Paul GutjahrPart Two: Scripture and SecularityChapter 4: The Book of Mormon and the Bible, Grant HardyChapter 5: An American Book of Chronicles: Pseudo-Biblicism and the Cultural Origins of The Book of Mormon, Eran ShalevChapter 6: "To Read the Sound of Eternity": Speech, Text, and Scripture in The Book of Mormon, Samuel BrownChapter 7: "The writing of the fruit of thy loins": Reading, Writing, and Prophecy in The Book of Mormon, Laura Thiemann ScalesChapter 8: Nephite Secularization; or, Picking and Choosing in The Book of Mormon, Grant ShrevePart Three: Indigeneity and ImperialismChapter 9: Kinship, The Book of Mormon, and Modern Revelation, Nancy BentleyChapter 10: How the Mormons Became White: Scripture, Sex, Sovereignty, Peter CovielloChapter 11: Nephites and Israelites: The Book of Mormon and the Hebraic Indian Theory, Elizabeth FentonChapter 12: "Great Cause to Mourn": The Complexity of The Book of Mormon's Presentation of Gender and Race, Kimberly Berkey and Joseph SpencerChapter 13: "We're going to take our land back over": Reading The Book of Mormon from an Indigenous Space, Stanley J. ThaynePart Four: Genre and GenerationChapter 14: The Book of Mormon and the Reshaping of Covenant, Terryl GivensChapter 15: "Arise from the Dust, My Sons, and Be Men": Masculinity in The Book of Mormon, Amy Easton-FlakeChapter 16: "I Lead the Way, like Columbus": Joseph Smith, Genocide, and Revelatory Ambiguity, Zachary McLeod HutchinsChapter 17: Book of Mormon Poetry, Edward Whitley