Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (Unabridged)
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of Into the Wild and Into Thin Air, this extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside America’s isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities. • Now an acclaimed FX limited series streaming on HULU.
“Fantastic.... Right up there with In Cold Blood and The Executioner’s Song.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God; some 40,000 people still practice polygamy in these communities.
At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.
Customer Reviews
Good but…
Great documentation of how messed up FLDS are. But it’s just a bunch of stories of them doing these wrongdoings. Not much bigger picture thoughts or opinions.
Lack of sources
Jon Krakauer writes an entertaining yet historically inaccurate book. He does not have a history degree, nor does he know how to find and present historical documents. He describes the mountain meadows massacre using sources from the 1960s, which is fine except for the fact that dozens more sources (many more reliable and consistent to each other that refute Krakauer’s claims) have been found in the last few decades. If the Mormons were so violent, why aren’t historians making that claim… instead of an investigative journalist (Krakauer) with no formal training or degrees in American history?
He makes the claim that violence “seems” to follow religion without citing any study. Most studies suggest religious people are generally happier, live longer, and have a better sense of community=opposite of the authors opinion. He also blames the Mormon church for people acting in violence, even though the brothers that were killing people were no longer members and had started their own church…. It’s like saying a catholic person leaves the Catholic Church and kills someone so it must be the catholic inside them that made them do it… such a bad argument.
If you want to read about some real true crime injustice search hauns mill massacre or the Mormon Missouri war or Mormon extermination order and learn about the many times Morons have been victims of ethnic cleansing. They were Americans who were assaulted, killed, raped, and driven out of every state they went to. Their lands were stolen, their leaders were martyred, and they were forced to trek west in the middle of winter (many of them froze to death) because they were told yet another army was coming to exterminate them. They asked the local, state, and federal government to help them and protect their rights but they refused to help the Mormons because they would lose votes. Why didn’t Krakauer write about this instead?.. because historical documents show us that Mormons were a terrorized and hated minority group that was violently removed from the 19th century US based solely on their religion. Krakauer instead paints the picture of Mormons as the violent aggressors. Wow… no historians would make that claim, only an investigative journalist (Krakauer) who knows little of the historical context and omits documents that refute his own claims.
I can’t believe he is making money off this!
Good Narrator
Like the narrator but I found the story very slow.