Featured Company:

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Today's shopping tips: "Be wise in purchasing ..... find best value one"

---

Manufacturer: Anchor
List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $4.74
You Save: $ 10.21 ( 68% )
(prices subject to change)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Average Ratings:

Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. He now shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders, taking readers inside isolated American communities where some 40,000 Mormon Fundamentalists still practice polygamy. 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.

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.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.33
EAN: 9781400032808
ISBN: 1400032806
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2004-06-08
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: 2004-06-08
Studio: Anchor


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• Into the Wild
• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
• Escape
• Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains
• Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great story telling, lousy history.
Comment: First of all, I enjoyed reading this book. It was an easy read and I had trouble putting it down which to me is the signs of a good author. The problem I had was the history of Mormonism was quite fractured at best. Parts of his telling (such as the Nauvoo Expositor and the eventual murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith) were very accurate, some parts were less than accurate (the letter from Brigham Young telling President Haight to let the Francher Party go being a forgery), and some of it was pretty much a lie (Joseph and Emma dressed in black and rode a black horse to retrieve the golden plates). There are defiantly some difficult facts in Mormonism's history that needs to be faced, but not at the expense of twisting facts, using condemning wording, and forcing history to fit one's own point. So, I was pretty much ashamed by how bad of a historian Jon Krakauer turns out to be in this novel.

I couldn't help to notice the constant tone Mr. Krakauer uses to describe religion as an irrational thought process to allow people to do illogical (or evil) things. To me, Mr. Krakauer the Lafferty brothers' murders to force his point of view (at the cost of speculation and misinterpreted facts) that religion was to blame for the awful murders of a mother and child. Even from the court cases, I felt convinced that Ron and Dan wanted to kill people that would not agree with or listen to them. Claiming God told them to was an excuse they used to rationalize murder. However, Mr. Krakauer was more than happy to believe that Dan and Ron thought this was a revelation of God to drive home his thesis.

In the end, the story telling was great and wove a deep and disturbing image of the crimes committed by several Mormon groups throughout Utah, Arizona, and Canada. I only wish Mr. Krakauer's academics could have been equal with his ability to write. Unfortunately, he proved he couldn't do that if he wanted to support his already predetermined conclusion. Here's the conclusion, now how can we use the facts to support it? Is this not how apologetics have done things?

Customer Rating:
Summary: Eye-Opening, Compassionate Expose
Comment: This is an eye-opening, highly readable, and thoroughly engaging piece of journalism. The bulk of the book - a brief history of Mormonism - gives the impression that it was written principally for a non-Mormon audience; which is a service in itself. The LDS Church has been a part of American life for a long time now, and their message has been ably formed and relentlessly marketed. A popular, comprehensible, and honest appraisal of the sinister bones in the LDS closet is an apropos counterpoint to the official narrative. I read "Under the Banner of Heaven" in only a few days; rarely has a work of contemporary history held my interest so consistently. Of course, I'm an admirer of Jon Krakauer's previous books... so I was predisposed to find myself right at home in his style.

For someone who may possess only a cursory knowledge of Mormonism, there's a great deal of material in this book that is worth discovering. Personally, I knew the basics of LDS history, but was still shocked to learn the details of the Mountain Meadow Massacre. I was more surprised, however, to learn the present-day state of polygamy in this country. There's no question that Krakauer draws a very creepy portrait of Mormon Fundamentalism and its mainstream antecedents; and it is a portrait that I judged to be eminently fair.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Informative and Well-Written
Comment: This investigation into the world of Latter Day Saints fundamentalism also provides a wealth of historical background on the original Mormonism, which is, in part, a reminder of the extreme level of violence that characterized American society as a whole in those days. It also, reminds us of the susceptibility of a large swath of the unlettered during that period to charismatic self-styled prophets. While Krakauer focuses on Fundamentalist LDS sects in modern(well, at least PARTIALLY modern) America, rather than on the mainstream LDS church of today, what he has to say has implications for understanding the impact of hyper-religiosity as a whole whether in Riyadh, Qom or Colorado Springs and the threat it poses to world peace and the well-being of human kind. Though, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the extraordinary violence described--to include extreme domestic violence by some authoritarian patriarchs--has an unmistakable link to Joseph Smith's "revelations", LDSers can relax. Krakauer in no way suggests that they have a lock on the absurd.

Krakauer is a prodigious researcher and a fine writer. A book with transformative potential, but needs to be understood in its broad implications which extend far beyond Mormonism.


Customer Rating:
Summary: Scary Treatise on Religion Run Amok
Comment: We are a religious lot, us Americans, and like our country is founded on teh belief of acceptance. It's the great melting pot after all? Jon Krakauer's book, "Under the Banner of heaven," isn't so much a personal attack on Mormonism, that truly unique American-born religion, but instead does something even nobler--it reveals something about our modern times and in doing so I fear about ourselves.

Where is the line drawn between a strong personal belief in a higher power and the willingness to suspend moral human decency in the name of religion? I suggest that line is drawn in a place where truly devout and decent people leave off and fundamentalism begins. And the fundamentalism that Krakauer paints for us to read about in "Under the Banner of Heaven," is one that is remarkably terrifying causing unspeakable violence like the murder of innocent children or say, the tearing down of skyscrapers in NYC. Scary.

Krakauer does a candid and bold job in personally summing up, what I think, is the book's main thrust. He says, "And if I remain in the dark about our purpose here, and the meaning of eternity, I have nevertheless arrived at an understanding of a few more modest truths: Most of us fear death. Most of us yearn to comprehend how we got here, and why--which is to say, most of ached to know the love of our creator. And we will no doubt feel that ache, most of us, for as long as we happen to be alive." Amen Brotha Jon, a true believer. It seems people arrive at a deeper faith through questioning and doubt. That I believe is the hallmark of a healthy relationship with God.

Polemics aside, Krakauer's choice of topics here, fundamentalism branches of the Latter Day Saints, dotted across Southern Idaho, Southern Utah, parts of Nevada to me, I find very intriguing. Though it took me awhile to come to this book after it was written, it wasn't for lack of interest. All of Krakauer's works I place in my top 50 books list, so now you know the way I roll. The books are that good. "Into Thin Air," I read in one night, "Eiger Dreams," read in rapt attention, and haven't gotten to "Into the Wild," yet but saw the movie. I previously thought of Krakauer as a top of shelf outdoors mountaineering writer. Boy, was I wrong.

"Under the Banner of Heaven," proves that Krakauer is more interested in extreme personalities populating the globe who sometimes cross over the borders of societal norms to devastatingly disastrous ends. Each of his books have these same characters and each of them you can't hardly turn away from as you read the horror that unfolds.

If you are of the LDS faith, a faith I admire and respect mind you, you might not want to read this book if you are a person easily offended. All the rest of you Americans (and non-Americans for that matter), I'd say a case should be made for Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven," to be required reading for these times...a time when a certain mass of people have crossed over the thin thin line to religious extremism; religious extremism that has us killing one another in the name of God.

In the global war on terrorism, we look in the face of the enemy and I fear we may be peering into a mirror more than we care to admit. Read this book, maybe you'll have some of the same thoughts. Maybe you won't --mmw

Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting History
Comment: This is an interesting book and contains a lot of history. I recommend those who are active in the LDS Church avoid this book, because it will likely offend you. Two of the things that bothered me were how he claims that belief in God is irrational and also that people who support the Constitution are radical. It was also misleading of him to claim that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are on a equal footing when it comes to history and validity.

He mentioned something from the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping that I was not aware of. I think it is fascinating that one of the Lafferty brothers is a cellmate to Mark Hoffman, whose nephew is my friend. I was raised LDS and was especially active during high school. I never felt satisfied with the faith and noticed too many inconsistencies. I went through a gradual and frustrating journey in leaving the church. Several of my ancestors practiced polygamy and one my relatives is mentioned in the book. His portrayal of the man is more negative than I had previously heard. One thing I found slightly irritating was how he mentions moral topics with a matter-of-fact approach without really commenting on the implications of it.

---

NOTE: All online transactions are processed at Amazon.com's secure server, using the latest technology on internet's secure transactions.
| Blocks | Building Sets | Model Toys | Puzzles | Figures & Playsets | Toys by Age Ranges |