A committee - consisting of President Francis M. Lyman, President George Reynolds (of the First Presidency) and Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., (Quorum of the Twelve) all appointed by the President of the Church (Joseph F. Smith) – read the entire work in manuscript format. “In style, the writing is plain, direct and simple, without any marked effort at literary embellishment, and well adapted, in our opinion, for a text-book in Church History that can advantageously be used in our Sunday schools and other church institutions of learning. We believe that it will materially help our youth in their study of the great latter-day work by making clear a number of point that former histories written for the young people of the Church have left somewhat ambiguous.” (the committee) 536 pages.
