Editing Book of Mormon (section)

=== Critique of the United States ===
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The Book of Mormon can be read as a critique of the [[United States]] during Smith's lifetime. [[History of religion|Historian of religion]] [[Nathan O. Hatch]] called the Book of Mormon "a document of profound social protest",{{sfn|Hatch|1989|p=116}} and historian Bushman "found the book thundering no to the state of the world in Joseph Smith's time."<ref name="Bushman-2007">{{Cite journal|last=Bushman|first=Richard Lyman|author-link=Richard Bushman|date=September 2007|title=What's New in Mormon History: A Response to Jan Shipps|url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/94/2/517/729680?redirectedFrom=fulltext|journal=[[Journal of American History]]|volume=94|issue=2|pages=517–521|doi=10.2307/25094963|jstor=25094963}}</ref> In the [[Jacksonian democracy|Jacksonian era]] of [[History of the United States (1849–1865)|antebellum America]], class inequality was a major concern as fiscal downturns and the economy's transition from guild-based artisanship to private business sharpened [[economic inequality]], and [[Poll taxes in the United States|poll taxes]] in New York limited access to the vote, and the culture of civil discourse and mores surrounding liberty allowed social elites to ignore and delegitimize populist participation in public discourse.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}} Against the backdrop of these trends, the Book of Mormon condemned upper class wealth as elitist,{{sfn|Hatch|1989|p=116}} and it criticized social norms around public discourse that silenced critique of the country.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}