Rating: 
Summary: Telling it like it is
Review: Through my work, I have had the opportunity to meet (and even get a little friendly with) people from Colorado City. I knew that I would have to read this book when a friend told me about it. Let me start by saying that I could not put it down! The subject of religious fundamentalism and the polygamist lifestyle is fascinating. While the story of the murders of two innocent people as a result of these beliefs is an integral part of the story (and somewhat graphically detailed), it didn't captivate me as much as the history of Mormonism and fundamentalist Mormonism did. Jon Krakauer did not use this book to bash, degrade or embarrass those of the Mormon faith; he was telling the story of and explaining the history of the LDS Church as it happened so that we could understand why some people choose to live the lifestyles that they do. When I mentioned some of the more negative historical information to an LDS friend of mine she was quick to reply that his information was wrong! This book is not about who is wrong or right (although most Mormons will quickly debate you when negative Church history is presented to them), but simply presents the true (and for some, painful) history behind the ultimate founding of both the LDS Church and the Fundamentalist LDS Church.
Krakauer's writing style draws you in right away. I'm always skeptical about nonfiction reading as it has the potential to be dry and boring. Not so here! If you have any interest in this area of religious debate or are a fan of Krakauer, you won't go wrong with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Study
Review: Jon Krakauer provides us with another excellent work of nonfiction. The subject matter is fascinating, and Krakauer presents a complex and controversial subject with great skill. My only point of contention with the author is his assertation that Mormonism is the "quintessential American religion." In fact, less that 2% of the population of the United States belongs to the LDS faith, and the tenets of the religion seem far more like communism than capitalism and democracy. Other than that, this is a fascinating read.
Rating: 
Summary: A historical account from a non-historian
Review: I am neither a historian or an expert in the lds church and I was still able to find many significant errors in this book. For example, 'Laban' in the Old Testament and 'Laban' in the Book of Mormon are not the same person, as Mr. Krakauer believes. Not only are they separate individuals, but several hundred years separates their time on the earth. Ooops. This is just one of many... This is more than an attack on the lds church. It is an attack on all religions. If the need for a few wasted hours is present in your life, feel free...just give the information you find the credit it deserves...similar to the credit of a super-market tabloid. Still want to waste your money? Here are some other reviews...from real critics... The Boston Globe, Terryl L. Givens, 27 July 2003 "To understand how an ostensibly nice religion that produced Donny and Marie Osmond could also produce brutal murderers, we are told, we need to take a 'clear-eyed journey into Mormonism's violent past.' Really? To understand Ron Lafferty, legally declared a paranoid delusional murderer, Krakauer says we need to go deep into 'this history of an American religion practiced by millions.' Trying to extrapolate profound truths from isolated examples of religious excess is a dangerous game. The Laffertys were not the first murderers to hear voices, and they won't be the last. But applying Krakauer's model, every David Berkowitz (''Son of Sam'') would provoke an inquiry into the sinister potential of Judaism (after all, Abraham heard voices telling him to kill Isaac). But that would clearly be anti-Semitic. Exactly. Insofar as Krakauer recounts Mormonism's past, he does it poorly, using outdated sources and discredited reports to portray a Joseph Smith and a Mormonism reminiscent of 19th-century caricatures. His picture of contemporary Mormonism is also seriously misinformed, leaving us with far more overlap between Mormons and renegade polygamists than really exists, and grave misperceptions ... Krakauer irresponsibly misinforms as well on subjects from the ''Book of Mormon'' to the Mountain Meadows Massacre - all in an effort to link deluded modern murderers with a skewed depiction of Mormonism's past and present ... His book is ultimately more about doing violence to a faith than uncovering the violence behind a faith."
The Wall Street Journal, Naomi Schaefer, 11 July 2003 "This is all quite misleading. Anyone who has spent any time with members of the Mormon Church will know that Mormons are not today polygamous, let alone violent. Indeed the church produces some of the most productive, law abiding, patriotic and community-minded citizens the country has ever seen. (Brenda Lafferty, a faithful Mormon and graduate of the church's flagship university, was one.) "True, 'Under the Banner of Heaven' is purportedly about the off-shoots of the Mormon church, whose members long for the days when the church allowed polygamy and banned blacks. But by linking the history of the church directly to these groups, and lightly skipping over the past 100 years of Mormon history, Mr. Krakauer implies that the fundamentalists are the rightful inheritors of the church's tradition. He regularly quotes the Lafferty brothers citing older Mormon scriptures as precedents for their revelations and behavior, as if there is some damning truth hidden in ravings of criminal extremists. "Predictably, the theme of the final courtroom scenes - where experts debate whether the Lafferty's are insane or just very faithful - is that all truly religious people share the Lafferty brothers' 'injudiciousness' and might therefore hold similar violent tendencies. It would be difficult to count the number of religious people in the world who would find this characterization frightfully unfair, but one could start with the 11 million members of the Mormon church."
Rating: 
Summary: Making sense of Mormonism
Review: Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven combines meticulous research with a healthy dose of skepticism to produce a remarkably insightful and interesting read. Although some would think it a blatant attack on the strange phenomenon of religious fundamentalism, Under the Banner of Heaven does not come off preachy or condemning of a religious system the author admits he is outside. All religious attacks from the outside remain just that--outside. I find it refreshing that rather than attempting to produce objective history with no personal bias, Krakauer unapologetically admits his skepticism--and thus his status as an outsider. This admission arms his readers with valuable insight into his inability to comprehend the nature of existential religious experience, what S. Kierkegaard referred to as the teleological suspension of the ethical, or in simple terms, the phenomenon of the Divine giving mandates to individual that run counter to the expected or accepted norms of a particular religious group. The highlights of the book include a very compelling recounting of the life and death of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, as well as fascinating glimpses into the thoughts of self-appointed modern day prophet-turned murderer Ron Lafferty. Krakauer raises some pretty important questions, and as a whole, Under the Banner of Heaven can be characterized as "not bad coming from an outsider."
Rating:
Summary: An indictment of fundamentalism in general
Review: Compelling, well-written and well-thought out investigation into the dangers of fundamentalism, whether encountered in the LDS cult or any other religion. Thoroughly documented, exhaustively researched, this work will take hold of you like one of the better fast paced novels. A valuable work on many levels, this is highly recommended (and urged on all my friends!)
Rating:
Summary: Great book; analysis of 1-star reviews
Review: This is an excellent book. Very interesting and fascinating. Krakauer shows how the institution of polygamy, as honored by the early mainline LDS, and modern-day Mormon Fundamentalists, lead, and continues to lead, to violence. This is not surprising, considering the outlaw status of polygamy, and that illegal behavior begets more illegal behavior, including violence (this is true regardless of whether the original illegal behavior - in this case polygamy - is immoral). I can't add much to what the other 4-star and 5-star reviewers have already said. But I was surprised at the number of 1-star reviews of this book, and so I took a close look at them. I thought it might be helpful to others to share the results of my analysis. You can read them too by choosing to see all reviews, and then selecting 1-star reviews only. As of January 28, 2004, when I'm doing this analysis, there are a total of 37 1-star reviews, of which 24 are from unique reviewers. One reviewer, rcbarden, posted four 1-star reviews. Ten other reviewers each posted two 1-star reviews, most of which are verbatim duplicates. Of the 24 1-star reviewers, 16 (67%) admit or reveal membership or affinity towards the LDS, yet 17 of the 1-star reviews (46%) criticize Krakauer himself for not being objective or being biased against the LDS. It's interesting to note how the 1-star reviews mostly tend to show up at the same time. The first batch of 7 (19%) showed up in the latter half of July 2003. The second batch was bigger, 20 (54%), all showing up in the latter half of August 2003 and the first week of September. Then there were 2 more later in September, a handful in October, none in November, one in December, and 2 (so far) in January 2004. In other words, about 75% of the 1-star reviews all showed up within two 2-week periods last summer. Coincidence? As to the content of the 1-star reviews - there is not much there. Very few of them actually cite anything specific about the book in their critiques, leaving one to wonder whether any of them actually read the book. They are full of claims of "bias", "Propoganda" (sic), "attack", "bigotry", "incompetence", etc., most without any substantiation. A common misconception shared by several of these reviews is perhaps best captured in one that urges, "don't judge all mormons by one idiot!" Who is the one idiot? Dan Lafferty? What about all the other idiots to which we are introduced by Krakauer? More importantly, Krakauer doesn't make any conclusion about "all mormons", explicitly or implicitly. He does not blame Mormonism or religion per se for Dan Lafferty's actions. By telling the tale, he does show how the practice of polygamy, to the extent it is endorsed, is necessarily connected to violence (Krakauer doesn't even get into the why aspect of this, which I believe is simply due to its illegality). But a couple of the 1-star reviews are actually worth reading. In particular, seefilm's review at least has some specific complaints. Seefilm quotes Krakauer stating that to understand [some infamous Mormon Fundamentalists] you have to begin with Joseph Smith, and then compares this to saying that to understand Catholicism today you need to study the atrocities of the Crusades. But that's not right. Krakauer is not saying you need to study the Mormon fringes in order to understand Mormonism - he's saying you need to understand the origins of Mormonism - that fundamentalists claim to follow, fundamentally - in order to understand the fundamentalists. And then he proceeds to do so, quite convincingly I might add. Another reviewer, Brooks G, takes issue with some specific details in the book, like whether modern day Mormons refer to non-Mormons as "gentiles". If I remember correctly, Krakauer was talking about fundamentalist Mormons, not mainstream Mormons. And isn't this nitpicking anyway? His other nits are similarly inconsequential, even if true. An anonymous reviewer from Edmonds, WA quotes from a review by Terryl Givens. Givens claims that examining Laffertys beliefs in order to understand the nature of their violence is akin to studying Judaism in order to understand David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam"). Well, if Berkowitz claimed his actions were moral and he was acting in accordance to Judaism then indeed that would be appropriate. A better example is to see how understanding the violence of Muslim terrorists is related to Islam teachings. And, again, Krakauer does NOT _blame_ Mormonism for Lafferty's action as this review claims. Some of the reviewers, like the anonymous "reader from American Fork, Utah", take issue with Krakauer trying "to make us think that Joseph Smith and Ron Lafferty are cut from the same cloth." Well, they both claimed that God made direct revelations to them, and they both were proponents of polygamy. Same cloth? I don't know. But Krakauer certainly doesn't "make us think" either way, clearly leaving it up to the reader to reach his or her own conclusion. The review closes with the following unsupported conclusion: "this book appears to be nothing more than yet another attempt to profit from bigots and the weak minded, while poisoning countless minds against being open to a religion that has done immeasurable good ...". I, for one, strongly disagree. The fact that these Mormons take such a view of this book is interesting, however. Perhaps it's hitting closer to home for them than a non-Mormon like myself would otherwise think. In summary, the 1-star reviewers that claim Krakauer's bias weakens his credibility should all take a good long look in the mirror. This is an excellent book, and I strongly recommend it to anyone with even a modicum of interest in U.S. history, "the West", religion, Mormon history, Lees' Ferry, the Powell expedition of the Grand Canyon, fanaticism, human nature, polygamy, true crime, the Arizona "strip", and particularly how all these topics might be connected.
Rating:
Summary: The man has an agenda...
Review: He claims to be objective, but I (a long inactive Mormon, and able to be quite critical of the church) found an implied equation between the extremists he focused on and the larger LDS institution as a whole. I rate it P for Propaganda. Better views into LDS life and culture are available.
Rating:
Summary: Latter Day Cult
Review: Bravo Jon Krakauer for your latest effort - a worthy, educational and entertaining read, although scary in it's implications. I'm going to keep a couple copies on hand for those brainwashed youth who on occasion knock at my door. As much as I enjoyed the book, the one star reviews were equally entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: I found it engrossing and disturbing at the same time.
Review: I finished "Under the Banner of Heaven" today and I still can't take my mind off of what I read. Let me start by saying I can clearly see why faithful Mormons might find this book offensive, but I think ANY book about religion is going to provoke STRONG reactions from the readers. I do also wonder though if Mormons who don't like the book maybe don't like their religion's blood atonement history as well as other not-so-nice aspects of the early Church discussed so openly. Also, I can see how people very familiar with Mormonism might find the book a little dull. Krakauer states in the book (albeit at the end) his belief system, which can best be described as agnostic. He also explains that he grew up intimately associated with Mormons; they were his friends, teachers, coaches and he was always fascinated with the way they lived their lives. He wanted to explore the history of this religion, which was founded in the day of recorded history and explore how it took root and brought itself where it stands today: extremely schismatic. What I found interesting about this book was not only the story of the Lafferty family, but the complex organizational structure of the church, along with the divisions of the mainstread LDS church and the fundamentalist offshoot churches. Personally, I felt that Krakauer was very objective and not at all "out to get" the Mormon Church. He is at his best with his efficient, engrossing storytelling that he's known for. I found this book was a fast read and just when the reader starts to get confused with all the complicated family trees in the polygamous sects, he switches the story to either an interview with a Mormon person or family, or switches the story back to what happened to Brenda and Erica Lafferty. I was disappointed that he didn't tell of where the Lafferty family is today as well as what happened in terms of the fallout among the people who KNEW about the removal revelation but CHOSE not to tell anyone about it or make any attempt to stop it. For instance, where is Alan Lafferty today and why did he not tell his wife her life was in danger, and why did Alan's mother (as well as the members of the prophet school) not tell anyone? Were they ever charged as accessories to murder and if not, why? I suppose the Lafferty family might not be in the mood for interviews. These things would have just helped explain things in my mind, though these things may never be able to be explained to my satisfaction. In terms of dealing with the history of the Mormon church, what I took from this book is that there has been great stides within the early church to actively portray the church in a certain favorable light. I can see why faithful Mormons would profusely disagree with the notion that Joseph Smith frequented brothels; but vehement denial by Mormons doesn't mean it didn't possibly happen. What I found disturbing, yet comical, is the paradox that teaching that each individual can receive revelations from God directly then leads to conflicting messages among those individuals. It seems to become a "my revelation is better than your revelation" and sort of a childish "na-aah" "ya-haa". It seems God gives everyone mentioned personal revelations that only benefit themselves. I also found it very interesting that Krakauer draws the reader to realize that the fundamentalists "correctly" feel they are more in tune with the original Mormon Church, because it does seem they are. I also found it interesting that the polygamy edict was never revoked... just postponed. I wonder if the modern day Church will ever address this issue. It seems as the Mormon church continues to grow, they will continue to suffer from identity issues. In trying to explain the Mormon church's evolution, it is very clear that the Church is defining itself as it goes along. There are now several offshoot churches of offshoot churches of offshoot churches. It almost seems as if these smaller independent versions of the Mormon church will implode upon themselves. I think there are a lot of valid, necessary, and probably awkward issues for Mormons to discuss among themselves and explain to the "gentiles" in this book. Krakauer deals mostly with the fundamentalist churches in this book, and so I believe any reader who takes this book on as a read will clearly understand that what is discussed in this book is not a judgement of Mormons, but rather what is it about this religion that gives birth to so many fanatics within it. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting read
Review: I knew almost nothing about the Mormon faith (fundamentalist or otherwise) before reading this book, and I think Mormons should thank the author for going to great lengths to distinguish between mainline Mormons and those on the fringe. I can now speak up and defend the majority of Mormons when I hear people bad-mouthing them in relation to incidents such as the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. I must say I find it very easy to dismiss many of the negative reviews of this book because while they rant away about all the errors in the book, they don't specifically state what those errors are. So they end up sounding like folks who haven't even read the book, if they can't cite exactly what's wrong in it. If you want to convince people that the author is mistaken, you have to point out the mistakes and state what the correct information is. Since the reviews I read couldn't do that, I lean strongly toward believing the facts as presented.
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