Estimated read time: Less than a minute
The recently released Netflix miniseries "American Primeval" is a work of fiction that depicts Brigham Young and other Latter-day Saints in the 1850s as violent fanatics. Trading in the tired trope that religion leads to violence, these misrepresentations leave many viewers wondering about the line between fiction and fact.
Were 19th-century Latter-day Saints an unusually violent people? Was there heightened violence between native peoples like the Shoshone and the Latter-day Saints? And what about Brigham Young? Was he a violent, authoritarian leader as portrayed by the miniseries?
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