Joseph Smith's Gold Plates

According to Joseph Smith, the text of the Book of Mormon was revealed to him on a stack of gold plates, which he translated into English. In this book renowned historian of Mormonism Richard Lyman Bushman offers a cultural history of the gold plates. Bushman examines how the plates have been imagined by both believers and critics-and by treasure-seekers, critics, novelists, artists, scholars, and others-from Smith's first encounter with them to the present. Why have they been remembered, and how have they been used? And why do they remain objects of fascination to this day?