Western Historical Quarterly, Richard Sherlock
Here for the first . . . time a Mormon [leader] and first-rate historian is wrestling with the most sensitive subject possible for his church: to what extent is the Book of Mormon a nineteenth-century product and/or an actual record of some of the peoples of ancient Mesoamerica. . . . Roberts's work points the way that an intellectually honest faith most go, and for that we must still read these now sixty-year-old studies, as others will do in another century.

Sociological Analysis, Gordon Shepherd
The Roberts manuscripts represent a compelling case study of the age-old tension between religious faith and rational thought. The Roberts era of Mormon history is instructive of the way in which successful religious movements eventually seek . . . to consolidate, systematize, and rationalize the inconsistencies of the founding beliefs.