The most plausible exposition of the Smith hypothesis was made by Fawn Brodie, author of No Man Knows My History. (1946) As she explains it, Smith employed a fertile imagination and an unusual responsiveness to his environment to magnify the theme of Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews, a book which identifies the American Indians as the Lost Tribes of Israel. Brodie stresses that both books describe the deterioration of an Israelite civilization in America, mention a written record of the aborigines once buried in the earth, and sponsor missionary effort to convert the Indians. She points also to the fact that View of the Hebrews cites Ezekiel chapter thirty-seven in a manner suggestive of the Mormon use to vindicate their sacred book, and shows that that Joseph knew of the work since he quoted it in his newspaper in 1842. Some additional parallels seem superficial. She states that both books quoted "copiously and almost exclusively" from Isaiah. Actually they both cite a number of Old Testament books. It is true, as she indicates, that both works open with a mention of the destruction of Jerusalem but the fact is not especially significant. The Book of Mormon refers to the Babylonian conquest while Ethan Smith's work discusses that of the Romans.