--From publisher description. The book takes its title from a half-defiant, half-wistful pronouncement Joseph Smith himself made toward the close of the short, tragic melodrama that was his life. 'No man knows my history, ' he said.

This 1995 book presents an alternative and comprehensive understanding of the roots of Mormon religion.

Mormonism is one of the fastest growing, most misunderstood, and most debated religions of recent times. Even the simple act of defining WHAT Mormonism is (or should be) has been filled with controversy.

Infused with Jan Shipps’s lively curiosity, scholarly rigor, and contagious fascination with a significant subculture, Sojourner in the Promised Land presents a distinctive parallel history in which Shipps surrounds her professional ...