"The Kingdom of Nauvoo" by Benjamin E. Park
Most people know about Brigham Young, Smith's able, pragmatic, successor, and the well organized Mormon crossing of the American plains he orchestrated. But, that trek would have been impossible without a people hardened in the crucible of Joseph Smith's remarkable city of Nauvoo. Park's book is a needed, well told story about American exceptionalism and an exceptional American. Read it.