Former Columbia University professor Richard L. Bushman, now chair of the advisory committee of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute of Latter-day Saint History at Brigham Young University, will discuss the character of Joseph Smith at a campus forum Tuesday (Nov. 19) at 11:05 a.m. in the Marriott Center.
The forum will be broadcast live on KBYU-TV (Channel 11), KBYU-FM (89.1), the BYU-Television and BYU-Radio satellite network and at broadcasting.byu.edu. It will be rebroadcast Sunday, Nov. 24 at 8 p.m. on KBYU-FM and on Sunday, Dec. 1, at 6 and 11 a.m. on KBYU-TV and on BYU-Television at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Bushman, from Portland, Ore., received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College followed by a Ph.D. degree in the history of American civilization from Harvard University. He taught at BYU, Boston University and the University of Delaware before joining the faculty at Columbia University, where he taught from 1989 to 2001.
His 1967 book about the character and social order of colonial Connecticut won the Bancroft Prize as one of the best books on American history. Subsequent books on Joseph Smith, early American political culture and gentility have also won wide acclaim.
Bushman currently chairs the advisory committee of the Smith Institute and is working on a biography of Joseph Smith.
Writer: Craig Kartchner
