Under the banner of heaven : a story of violent faith
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
New York : Doubleday, [Anchor Books], 2003.
Format
Book
Edition
1st ed.
Physical Desc
xxiii, 372 pages : maps ; 25 cm
Status
Main Library - Adult
289.33 Kra
2 available

Description

Loading Description...

Also in this Series

Checking series information...

Copies

LocationCall NumberStatus
Main Library - Adult289.33 KraOn Shelf
Main Library - Adult289.33 KraOn Shelf
Oliver La Farge289.33 KraOn Order
Southside289.33 KraOn Order

Extras

More Details

Published
New York : Doubleday, [Anchor Books], 2003.
Edition
1st ed.
Language
English
Accelerated Reader
UG
Level 10, 23 Points
Lexile measure
1350

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-358) and index.
Description
Jon Krakauer's literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this divinely inspired crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, 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. Krakauer takes readers inside isolated communities in the American West, Canada, and Mexico, where some forty-thousand Mormon Fundamentalists believe the mainstream Mormon Church went unforgivably astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the leaders of these outlaw sects are zealots who answer only to God. Marrying prodigiously and with virtual impunity (the leader of the largest fundamentalist church took seventy-five "plural wives," several of whom were wed to him when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties), fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers, and preach that any day now the world will be swept clean in a hurricane of fire, sparing only their most obedient adherents. Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonism's violent past, Krakauer examines the underbelly of the most successful homegrown faith in the United States, and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism. The result is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.
Target Audience
1350L,Lexile
Study Program Information
Accelerated Reader AR,UG,10,23,74916.

Reviews from GoodReads

Loading GoodReads Reviews.