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The first episode of a new video series plainly states one of its provocative missions: Prove that Brigham Young wasn’t part of a conspiracy to kill Joseph Smith.
That ahistorical claim was getting too much traction online, some Latter-day Saints historians decided. They are responding with a series of historically sound, but engaging, minidocumentaries titled “Becoming Brigham.”
The first 12-minute episode, “Who Killed Joseph Smith,” is online now.
Here’s what you need to know:
The project is ambitious. More than 40 episodes have been filmed.
Episodes will be released weekly. Look for a new one to drop each Monday.
You can find them on YouTube. To see it there, click here, or go to BecomingBrigham.com.
The series is rooted in scholarship. The list of contributors includes historians trusted by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Here are some of the key contributors:
Ronald Esplin was the managing editor of the Joseph Smith Papers project when this was written and the former director of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at Brigham Young University.
Reid L. Neilson is BYU’s assistant academic vice president for religious scholarly publications. He took that role at the end of his service as president of the Washington D.C. North Mission. Prior to that, he was an assistant church historian.
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