The King of Confidence: A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch

The instant I saw this book, I knew I had to read it.You see, my family is LDS, and while I was raised in the church, I left it when I was younger, and made the transition official with my records removed when I was in my early twenties. I remember a lot of this stuff from my youth, from time at church, but it was all told with a very “churchy” tone. Since then, I’ve enjoyed not being LDS so much, I have had no desire to do any further reading on a lot of church history. I got my fill of it as a kid, thank you very much.That being said, I really enjoy reading about historical figures I’ve never heard of before. The weirder they are, the more I like it. Confidence men, scammers and the like, really turn my crank. I always think the ways they con people are just… fascinating (and rather amazing in the, “Holy crap, someone actually bought into that?!” way.).I will say, before going into this book very far, I do think this book could potentially offend LDS people, not because it outright poo-poos their religion, but there is discussion of church lore, which is, shall we say, handled with a bit of a guffaw. While I think the guffaw was put in all the right places, I wouldn’t, for example, advise my mother to read this book. I think sometimes the way things are handled, especially regarding Joseph Smith and his golden plates, for example, are explained with a sort of off the cuff disbelief and blatant skepticism that would absolutely offend her (though I found it to be extremely refreshing). So, be aware of that before diving in.Anyway, this book is about one James Jesse Strang. Strang grew up in the mid 1800’s, starting out in a county in New York which, at the time, was known for its fervent religiosity. This is where a whole lot of religious movements and con men got their start. This, as it happens, was also the county Joseph Smith started out in. Strang, however, was not religious. A devout atheist, he often waxed on and on in his journals and notebooks about how he was absolutely not religious. Strang went on to become a lawyer, married a woman he really didn’t like much, and started selling off property that didn’t exist to people. He also really thought Napoleon was fantastic and he really wanted to emulate this guy.So how did he get from backwoods New York atheist, to the heir of the early LDS church? Well, it’s a bit of a wild ride.Now, before I continue on, I should tell you that one thing I loved about this book, which you may or may not enjoy, was all the context. Again, I’m going to put a little personal spin on this. There were a whole lot of things I never knew about Joseph Smith and the early Mormons and, specifically, this part of New York. I remember I went to the Sacred Grove as a kid, and watched my dad go crazy trying to get all the mosquitos off of him as we wandered around. What I didn’t know until I read this book, was just how prevalent and prolific various religious movements were in this specific county in New York, to the point where this county got a nickname due to all the religious fervor: Burned-Over District.I’d always thought this part of New York was a place where a few other small churches started out but not many, and eventually everyone realized that the Mormon church and Joseph Smith was THE DUDE TO FOLLOW and just went after him. I had no idea that there was such a fervor of religiosity in this region that Smith really was just one guy plying his trade amongst hundreds of them. That this region was so notorious for its religious devotion, it was nationally known for it. That there were so many men and women starting churches, you could pretty much throw a rock and hit someone with a direct line to God.So, for me, a whole lot of this book contextualized things that I’d understood a little… differently… from my church days.There was a lot about the time in US history that made confidence men and religious upstarts so prevalent. For example, banks were basically handing out IOU’s to people, which may or may not actually be worth anything in the end. Thus, there were huge amounts of insecurity. The country was in a bit of a roiling state due to things happening in such a way that was setting the stage for the Civil War. There was a whole lot of uncertainty, and people wanted certainty. What better way to give people what they want than to find God? For one reason or another, Burned-Over District in New York became a hotbed of this stuff. And this is where both Joseph Smith and James Jesse Strang really got started.Strang ended up getting into some trouble in New York and he took off in the night (literally) with his wife and family. He wasn’t heard of again for five years, when he turned up in Wisconsin. Out in Wisconsin, he ends up practicing law again, and selling off property again. One thing leads to another, and he ends up in Nauvoo, Illinois, meeting Joseph Smith and then converting to the church. This is weird, because he’s an atheist and he’s very proud of that fact, so no one is really sure why he converted. Many years later, someone said he converted because he was hoping that he could entice all the Mormons to move up to Wisconsin, which would drive the property values through the roof. He could unload a bunch of property and make a boatload of money. While that’s just a theory, in my mind, it’s the theory that makes the most sense.Anyway, the rest of the book goes on from there. It tells the story of how he started a breakoff Mormon sect after Joseph Smith died, how he “found” his own brass plates and an angel “loaned” him the devices he needed to translate said plates (just like Joseph Smith). How he became the King of Earth and Heaven, Beaver Island, the saga of lording over these people and his struggle to keep them loyal to him, and his spectacular fall.It’s all very… entertaining.What I liked most about this book, however, wasn’t just the story of Strang, it was the historical backdrop that serves as fantastic context for so much that happens. It’s really not just a story of one guy with a chip on his shoulder, but the larger, changing, evolving United States as a whole and all the stresses and tensions within it that allowed certain movements to rise up and take root in the way they did. There were not a few times I found myself refocusing, contextualizing some of the things I learned in church all those years ago, and a whole lot of times I was just interested because what I was learning was interesting.So while this is a biography of one man, you kind of get double duty here. It’s a biography, and a nonfiction historical book sort of smashed into one, and I found all the parts of it to be just fantastic. Part of this is likely because of my own personal history. This book tapped into something in my own story that doesn’t get tapped into often. Part of it is also because it’s just interesting. I haven’t read much about confidence men in the mid-1800s, and while I know that was a time when scammers really had fun, what this book does is show some of the reasons why people like Strang came to be, and the social elements that played into their stories and allowed them to be what they became.And, wow, was he a colorful person.All in all, I absolutely loved this book. I devoured it. It was well written, with a lot of detail and depth that I honestly didn’t expect. While I do not think this book is for everybody, I do think that it is worth reading. I wish I could find more nonfiction books like this.

In one of his spoken word pieces that The Doors later set to music, Jim Morrison said: “We could plan a murder. Or start a religion.” The idea of starting a religion has always fascinated me. Getting enough people to buy into a myth that it grows from curiousity to cult to full blown religion is just a matter of degrees. And, of course, the charisma of the leader.That’s what drew me to Miles Harvey’s book “The King of Confidence” about the wild and strange life of James Jesse Strang. Strang watched as Joseph Smith founded The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism) and took advantage of Smith’s untimely murder to declare himself Smith’s successor. Though most Mormon’s recognized Brigham Young as Smith’s successor (and followed him to Utah) Strang was convincing enough to eventually have 12,000 followers. He established a commune on Michigan’s Beaver Island where he declared himself prophet and king.Harvey mentions in the Acknowledgements that his research for this book began in 2015 (and, wow, does it show!), meaning it predates our current political situation. But it is hard to read a story like this, about a man with such strong charisma that he creates a Cult of Personality whose followers will believe just about anything, without seeing similarities today. Harvey says as much at the end of this story when he writes: “... people like James Strang never really vanish. When the time is right, they reappear, wearing a new guise, exploiting new fears, offering new dreams of salvation. Americans are fixated on such figures, especially in periods of profound social and economic upheaval.”Superbly written and thoroughly researched, I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever thought about planning a murder or starting a religion.

Miles Harvey's superbly researched "The King of Confidence" metamorphoses what might seem to be unpromising material--the sketchily documented life of a once nationally famous, paradoxical religious conman--into an examination of mid-nineteenth prophets and cults and their true believers.The history the book uncovers, focusing on an offshoot branch of Mormonism, is fascinating. There are enough twists and turns and action (sometimes violent) for a movie. But the best part, for me, is Harvey's analysis of the ideological roots of all this turbulence, including Manifest Destiny, the religious revival centered in New York's Burned Over District, and American and Mormon patriarchy. On the topic of Mormons, Harvey is scrupulously factual and more inclined to see the positive sides of his central figure's character than Brigham Young, his chief Mormon opponent, did.This central figure is the sometimes shadowy, always grandiose farmer's son, James Strang--a dreamer, swindler and occasional idealist. Harvey fills in the gaps in Strang's life through what one reviewer called his "pointillist" technique of contextualizing Strang in the history of his era and connecting him with better-known historical actors such as Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, Joseph Smith, P.T. Barnum, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. Yet "The King of Confidence" is far from being just a tale of charismatic men. We learn about Strang's wives, notably the cross-dressing Elvira Field/Charles Douglass, and their aspirations and disappointments in a time when they were legally subject to their husbands. Harvey illuminates their plight though the life and writings of their feminist contemporary, Margaret Fuller."The King of Confidence" is, apart from its broad historical vision, an engagingly written book, worth reading for its tour de force Prologue alone. And most readers will shiver with recognition when they shift from Harvey's mid-nineteenth century America to our national present.

The synopsis sounded promising but after reading through about 30% of this tale, there were more yawns than yarn.This tale fails to satisfy as a novel or a report.It is a jumble of everything and cannot keep me interested.Against my tenet of finishing what I have started, this one does not deserve more time than I have already dedicated to it.Readers - go look somewhere else.