Paulos found reading the transcripts of the hearings to be "tedious and painstaking" but his business acumen allowed him to use comfortably 25 spreadsheets to keep it all straight. "The biggest challenge," Paulos said, "was to get it from hard copy to electronic text. I had to be careful to catch all the mistakes. I didn't want my work to be merely an abridgement of the hearings. I wanted to provide 'behind-the-scenes information,' and it worked out very well."

Family and friendship connections facilitated Paulos' acquisition of materials from both the Smoot and Badger families. Carl Badger was private secretary to Smoot during the hearings, and he kept a very helpful journal. Paulos was able to get primary documents directly from the Badger family.

Paulos discovered that Smoot was "a savvy businessman even before he was a politician," but his "lack of religious knowledge was surprising and not what you'd expect of a general authority. On the stand, he testified he had been through the temple only once, and it didn't make much of an impact on him."

That was important since several senators had heard that Mormons took secret oaths, perhaps against the government of the United States, inside the temple. Because Smoot had been an apostle only three years, President Smith and Talmage filled in the gaps of his LDS knowledge.

Paulos said Smith was "the most influential witness" while Talmage was "the smartest, most intellectual witness. He talked about the minutia of doctrines."

When Smith seemed to indicate that the process of revelation was rare to him personally, it surprised many people. Paulos believes that Smith "was a cagey witness and played the political game when he testified, using spin" as politicians do.

"A lot of the senators who voted in favor of Smoot said the hearings were ridiculous," Paulos said, "because 'we were examining the Mormon Church rather than Smoot."'

Actually, Smoot's "wet-behind-the-ears" image might have helped him win his case, and there was no evidence that he had ever advocated or practiced polygamy. In Paulos' view, the politicians failed to find "their smoking gun."

Paulos has provided a fine historical treatise on one of the most interesting episodes in both Mormon history and American political history. His book is invaluable for understanding Mormons as they emerged as a stable force in the 19th century.

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E-mail: dennis@desnews.com