Overview
If we are to learn anything of value from the murders and mass suicide at Jonestown, its history must be salvaged from popular myths, which are little more than superficial atrocity tales. In this superb cultural history, John R. Hall presents a reasoned analysis of the meaning of Jonestown: why it happened and how it is tied to our history as a nation, our ideals, our practices, and the tensions of modern culture. Hall deflates the myths of Jonestown by exploring the social character of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple - how much of what transpired was unique to the group and its leader and how much can be explained by reference to wider social processes? The book begins by examining the cultural origins of Jonestown: Who was Jim Jones? Where did he get his ideas and followers? How was his Peoples Temple established? The organizational base of the Temple is analyzed through relevant comparisons with modern institutionalized practices in economics, bureaucracy, social control, public relations, and power. The author then traces the situational causes of the Temple's conflict with its detractors, the collective migration to Guyana, and the mass suicide. By assessing the degree to which the Peoples Temple was truly an aberration or simply an exaggeration of our society's contradictions, the author deepens our understanding of a modern scape-goat.
Full Product Details
Author: John R. Hall ,
John R. Hall, Jr.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Inc
Imprint: Transaction Publishers
Edition: 2nd edition
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.566kg
ISBN: 9780765805874
ISBN 10: 0765805871
Pages: 408
Publication Date: 28 February 2004
Audience:
General/trade
,
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
General
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
Brimming with new information and vital insight into one of the most horrifying episodes of the 20th century. - Steve Weinberg, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc.; The mot comprehensive and sociological assessment of Peoples Temple available. - Ernest G. Rigney, Jr., Contemporary Sociology; Extraordinarily well researched and elegantly argued.... Hall deals with a sensational and frightening topic in a reflective and analytic fashion. - George Lipsitz, Choice
"""Brimming with new information and vital insight into one of the most horrifying episodes of the 20th century."" - Steve Weinberg, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc.; ""The mot comprehensive and sociological assessment of Peoples Temple available."" - Ernest G. Rigney, Jr., Contemporary Sociology; ""Extraordinarily well researched and elegantly argued.... Hall deals with a sensational and frightening topic in a reflective and analytic fashion."" - George Lipsitz, Choice"""
Author Information
John R. Hall is director of the Center for History, Society, and Culture at the University of California, Davis and has also taught sociology at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He is the author of Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America, Europe, and Japan and The Ways Out: Utopian Communal Groups in an Age of Babylon.
