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Though the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion, it does not specify what counts as a religion. From its founding in the 1830s, Mormonism, a homegrown American faith, drew thousands of converts but far more critics. In A Peculiar People, J. Spencer Fluhman offers a comprehensive history of anti-Mormon thought and the associated passionate debates about religious authenticity in nineteenth-century America. He argues that understanding anti-Mormonism provides critical insight into the American psyche because Mormonism became a potent symbol around which ideas about religion.

Cover; Contents; PROLOGUE. On Familiarity and Contempt; INTRODUCTION. Religious Liberty as an American Problem; CHAPTER 1. "Impostor": The Mormon Prophet; Authenticity and Disestablishment; Interlopers in the Protestant Historical Pantheon; Counterfeiters of Faith and Currency; CHAPTER 2. "Delusion": Early Mormon Religiosity; Mormon Spirituality and the Threat of Enthusiasm; Religion, Madness, and the Search for Rational Faith; Enlightened Christianity and the Problem of Mormon Evidence; CHAPTER 3. "Fanaticism": The Church as (Un)Holy City; The Political Burden of the Mormon Gathering.

The Discovery of a Mormon TheologyThe Politics of Expulsion; CHAPTER 4. "Barbarism": Rhetorics of Alienation; Empire(s) in the West; The Problem of Mormon Whiteness; Mormon Women, the Ungrateful Objects of American Pity; CHAPTER 5. "Heresy": Americanizing the American Religion; Mormonism in the Crowd of World Religions; Textbook Mormons and the Weight of Mormon History; Conclusion: Mormonism (Almost) Defanged; Notes; Bibliography; Acknowledgments; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; X; Y; Z.

Includes bibliographical references and index.