While the Book of Mormon narrative today seems outlandish, the story was very familiar to Americans in 1830 The central plot of the Book of Mormon –the idea that Native Americans are descendants of ancient Jews who came to the Western Hemisphere– seems bizarre in the 21st century. However, the idea was commonplace when the book was published in 1830. We’ll look at the Book of Mormon’s 19th century context in order to make sense of this book of Latter Day