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Hit 7 - Under the Banner of Heaven
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List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $16.95
Your Save: $ 13.00 ( 43% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.33
EAN: 9780739306567
Format: Abridged
ISBN: 0739306561
Label: Random House Audio
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
Number Of Items: 5
Publication Date: 2003-07-15
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: 2003-07-15
Studio: Random House Audio
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Editorial Reviews:
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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.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: My kingdom for a point...
Comment: Much like the Mormon faith, Under the Banner of Heaven has an infrastructure of oatmeal. This book, at best, strengthens the resolve of those who love and those who loathe the LDS movement.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A history of polygamy in the US
Comment: John Krakauer's account of the history of polygamy in the US is both well researched and enthralling. He simultaneously spins two tales, one of modern day fundamentalists driven to horrifying actions by their faith, and the other of the founding of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. He begins at the beginning with Joseph Smith and tracks he new faith from it's roots. It is an adventure as only true history can provide and the elements of modern day true crime will keep you turning pages. To a resident of the Southwest it provides some local historical information of the area, especially the Arizona Strip and Colorado City, home to the now infamous Warren Jeffs, who is pointed out as an up and coming leader of the polygamists who reside there. This book provides a step by step explanation of major events that have shaped the mindsets of not only the Mormon Church, but also the breakaway fundamentalist sects that have formed and Krakauer makes a clear contrast between the two groups. This book will not disappoint.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Way Too Much Background Information
Comment: A horrific crime is put into the context of religious fanaticism. Fanatics are generally uninteresting characters, as they were in this book. A fundamentalist had a revelation that he should kill various people. He follows God's will.
The history of Mormonism is given in excruciating detail, providing no more insight into what happened than could be gleaned from understanding that in Mormonism, people are encouraged to communicate directly with God. And of course, those communications can't be empirically verified. And sometimes wacky people serve their own needs by claiming divine blessings.
Krakauer is a thorough researcher. However, his subject matter bored me. And his writing style is choppy. He has many footnotes that should have been incorporated into his text.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Exeeded my expectations
Comment:
Before I read this book I had a number of friends tell me about it. Some loved it, some hated it, but they all agreed that it was a very negative portrayal of Mormons as a people and a religion.
Even with that knowledge going in I was very disappointed in this book.
After reading it I did a little research and found that almost all of Krakauer's cited sources are either ex-Mormons or members of polygamist sects. In other words: Not Mormons. How do you tell a people's history using only ex-members and fanatical splinter groups?
Would I go to a Ford dealer to get an objective opinion on buying a Toyota truck?
Would I get a fair depiction of Catholic history from a Protestant minister?
Not likely.
If you removed all the inaccuracies from this book you might have an interesting pamphlet about two brothers who commit a horrible, tragic murder.
The more I read the more I was led to one of two conclusions...
Either Krakauer's research was incredibly shoddy and one sided, Or he has revised and twisted information to support his own thin thesis as stated in the preface: "Any attempt to answer such questions [here he refers to why these two brothers would commit such a crime without remorse] must plumb those murky sectors of the heart and head that prompt most of us to believe in God-and compel an impassioned few, predictably, to carry that irrational belief to it's logical end."
So according to John, any belief in God is irrational and the logical conclusion of such a belief will lead to murder... ? Really guy?
The most truly objective history of Joseph Smith and the Mormons that I have read is Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. If you want a more accurate portrayal of that church's history or it's founder, read that book. This one is yellow journalism at best.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Compelling
Comment: While not as enjoyable as Krakauer's other works, UTBOH is a compelling read. Insightful, giving the outsider a view of the FLDS church that is seldom seen and even less understood. Some of the passages are disturbing and violent. The book sometimes has a feel of anti-religious propaganda, but give credit to Krakauer for being someone who attempts to deliver the facts as best he can. I am sure this was a very difficult book to research due to the "closed" nature of the society he was investigating. Great read for those interested in the topic. The casual reader, however, will be lost in the confusing morass that is the FLDS church.
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