Rating: 
Summary: A well researched and engaging book.
Review: "Under the Banner of Heaven" is Jon Krakauer's very readable account of the culture of violence and deceit, which permeates the history of Mormonism. This unwholesome underbelly of Mormonism is still very much in evidence among "Mormon Fundamentalists" that sub-culture of "true believers" who still cling to the old ways of Joesph Smith, Brigham Young et al. These fundamentalists are understandably an embarrassment to the Mormon hierarchy in Salt Lake City; as well they might be, because they reflect more accurately the real nature of Mormonism, a movement that has tried, and in many ways succeeded, in hiding the unsavory truth about "the Saints" and their history. Krakauer masterfully and with impeccable research exposes the true colors of Mormonism and its violent history. Anyone interested in knowing more about Mormonism cannot do better than start with "Under the Banner of Heaven". A glaring weakness of Mr. Krakauer's book is his almost cavalier dismissal of all religious experience as having no solid basis in history. He clearly does not have any knowledge of how the science of archeology has again and again validated the historicity of both the Old and New Testament scriptures. Although the Bible is ancient by the standards of the Book of Mormon, it has been proved again and again to reliable through the sciences of both archeology and textual criticism. Anyone interested in beginning to look at this topic needs to buy and read, "The New Testament Documents - are they reliable?" by Prof. F. F. Bruce, Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism at the University of Manchester, England. Prof K. A. Kitchen has similarly adequately and readably evidenced the reliability of the Old Testament, in his book "On the reliability of the Old Testament". This is a meticulously researched study by the emeritus Professor of Egyptology and Archeology at the University of Liverpool, England. Just as the sciences of archeology and textual criticism have consistently proven the reliability of the Bible, no such research has produced even a shred of evidence to validate the claims of the book of Mormon. Furthermore DNA research has finally disproved the Mormon claim that the original inhabitants of the Americas are in any way related to the Hebrews.
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Summary: This book is dynamite: get your momon freinds to read it!
Review: I had no information about the Mormon religion or its history and found this book engaging and very well written. So I can confidently say it is true--so buy it. It's a good read, and thats what books are all about. I recommend this book to all. You will ove me for telling you it. As in any organized religion, many practicing Mormons just go through the motions, whch is what you expect from them at all costs, not paying strict attention either to Scripture or to Mormon writings. They attend church without looking forward to their next calling, doing it mainly for family, or tradition, or the succor of routine. These Mormons can be friendly, happy, Elizabeth Samrt happy, easy-going, and as in the weakness of Joseph Smith, they might even share a glass of wine or two. To non-Mormons, they can be good people; in the eyes of the Church, this makes them bad Mormons. So there you have it, Several of my fellow reviewers have dismissed this book as anti-Mormon propaganda (whih it is) and after reading it I can certainly understand why it is not a best-seller in Salt Lake City but I cannot have an opinion about how subjective the book might be since I am far from being an expert on Mormon history. So that is why I am commenting on this book, since I know nothng--that makes me unbuased. Until now, my views of the church had been shaped by bits of information I'd been taught in U.S. history classes, a single trip through heavily Mormon northern Utah, the glossy public relations campaigns from the mainstream church, and a small handful of interactions with Mormons over the years. So that makes me an expert on al things Mormonisfic. I believe a leader of the LDS church ("seefilms") submitted the same review multiple times as well. Often these 1-star diatribes are copied from old media reviews. If you didn't learn anything else from this book, how about THINK FOR YOURSELF!! It's funny how Jon can portray religious zealots in his book and then we can see examples of this fanaticism from the 1-star reviewers online. I love it!! That is why we need to condemn the whole religion bcasue of a few nuts. Did you know the Mormons still shun inter-racial marriage to this day and the church didn't allow Afro-Americans into its priesthood until 1979. Of course women aren't allowed in the priesthood at all and polygamy is still widely practiced among the fundamentalist groups. In total this book displays what a crackpot lot the Mormons really are. They are so secretive--have we forgot the lessons of the 2002 olympics alread?
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Summary: Krakauer at his best!
Review: This book was a fascinating read. I didn't know much about Mormons (except the housekeeper who stole from me) before this book, and I think I have a better understanding now of what Mormonism is than most cradle-Mormons. The few questions that remained months after finishing the book were easily answered by looking at: http://www.exmormon.org and http://www.mormonnomore.com and http://www.exmormonfoundation.org There is truth contained within the personal stories of exmormons on those web sites that makes a great unofficial afterword to this book.
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Summary: As evidenced by reviewer example......
Review: Jon does an excellent job of engaging the reader in this fast-paced account of a true crime/historical look at the FLDS movement. He already has plenty of 5-star reviews to alert avid readers that this is a book worth picking up. So instead of giving more applause to Jon, I will comment on those who are writing the 1-star reviews. Yes, you who feel the need to defend the Mormon faith are entitled to your opinions. However, I find it quite amusing that the "defense ranks" are submitting multiple entries of the same review. RCBarden, for one, has submitted the same 1-star review 4 times. When are you going to submit your 5th? I believe a leader of the LDS church ("seefilms") submitted the same review multiple times as well. Often these 1-star diatribes are copied from old media reviews. If you didn't learn anything else from this book, how about THINK FOR YOURSELF!! It's funny how Jon can portray religious zealots in his book and then we can see examples of this fanaticism from the 1-star reviewers online. I love it!!
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Summary: Religion in America
Review: Under the Banner of Heaven has several chilling storylines between its covers. The horrible centerpiece of the book is the 1984 case of a two fundamentalist Mormon brothers who brutally murdered their sister in law and her infant daughter; and the context comes from the colorful description of the Mormon church's first decades, when violence apparently became a cornerstone of the faith. But the undercurrent is about the place of religion in America -- a theme that comes to a head during the trial of the murder trial of the Lafferty boys. In justifying their unspeakable crime, the Laffertys claimed they were acting on direct orders from God, who told them that the two victims were standing in the way of His plans. Attorneys developed an insanity defense, claiming -- not unreasonably -- that anyone who believes such an "order" could not be sane. But the book points out that so-called normal religious people believe many things that don't stand to objective reasoning: the virgin birth, for example, or the transformation of bread into the body of Christ. Are these people insane as well? If not, who decides what religious beliefs are rational and which are not? And if there is no objective standard to judge these things by, does that amount to a sanction of atrocious acts committed by would-be messiahs like the Laffertys? A more or less similar story could have been written about any number of other ghastly crimes (author Jon Krakauer mentions several in passing in Under the Banner of Heaven), and the Mormon church by no means has a monopoly on violent histories. But Mr. Krakauer does make a compelling and highly readable case that the basic beliefs of Mormons (e.g., the church's historical reliance on violence, its love-hate relationship with polygamy and government authority, and the belief that every member can receive direct revelations from God) make this sort of event more common. And he certainly tells the story of the Laffertys in a way that will keep readers turning the pages even as they shake their heads in disbelief. Several of my fellow reviewers have dismissed this book as anti-Mormon propaganda, and after reading it I can certainly understand why it is not a best-seller in Salt Lake City but I cannot have an opinion about how subjective the book might be since I am far from being an expert on Mormon history. Until now, my views of the church had been shaped by bits of information I'd been taught in U.S. history classes, a single trip through heavily Mormon northern Utah, the glossy public relations campaigns from the mainstream church, and a small handful of interactions with Mormons over the years. But what is clear is that Mr. Krakauer did an extraordinary amount of research to produce this book. He weaves together stories of dozens of historical and contemporary Mormon families in far-flung outposts of the American west, Mexico, and Canada, mixed in with historical records, news accounts, and Mormon doctrine. Other non-fiction writers would do well to read Under the Banner of Heaven if for no other reason than to understand how important going through a good bit of shoe leather plays in producing a memorable work. Unfortunately, some simple and mostly cosmetic steps could have made this book much better. As one would guess, a story with so many characters is bound to be a little confusing. But Mr. Krakauer makes it more so, alternately refering to major players in the book by their first and last names. As a result, Mormon church founder Joseph Smith and modern-day polygamist Alex Joseph are both puzzlingly referred to as "Joseph" -- and other similar examples abound. Also, the sheer number of Laffertys, Lees, Batemans, Blackmores, Johnsons, and Smiths featured in the book might make some kind of family tree printed on the inside covers helpful, though I suppose that given all the instances of church members marrying their cousins or step-daughters could mean that such a diagram would have to exist in three dimensions. Then there is the annoying problem of footnotes. It is true that adding a bit of information from outside the narrative can add another layer of complexity to a story. But in this case the use of footnotes is too often used to simply explain who a person is, which could simply be added to the narrative; or to explain that legal rights to reprint a given passage had been dutifully obtained, something would could have easily been relegated to the end of the book. Some pages have as much information in their footnotes as in the main text, and when the information found there is superfluous, it interrupts the flow of the narrative and creates the impression that Mr. Krakauer is trying too hard to impress, like a kid in school who sits in front and raises his hand even before the teacher finishes asking the question. If you read Under the Banner of Heaven you'll no doubt agree that the effort is impressive enough already.
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Summary: Jon, Jon, Jon, Jon, Joooonnnnnn!
Review: After reading your books, Into Thin Air, and Into the Wild, I was severly disappointed in this piece of literary balderdash. Your suppositions about Mormonism, Joseph Smith and the others mentioned in the book, are about as far out as the orbit of Pluto. You need to study Mormonism and Mormon theology for yourself, rather than reading the same old stuff that has been around for decades. You're not a religious apologist or critic. Stick to climbing stories.
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Summary: Evil in the name of God
Review: Why do some people commit unspeakable evil and use their religion to justify it? To explore this question Jon Krakauer has written an eye-opening account of the violent history of the Mormon church which influenced the murders committed by Ron and Dan Lafferty in 1984. The brothers claim to have recieved a divine revelation ordering them to kill their sister-in-law and her young daughter. To this day the brothers have no remorse for their cold-blooded actions due to their belief that they were carrying out God's will. Did you know the Mormons still shun inter-racial marriage to this day and the church didn't allow Afro-Americans into its priesthood until 1979. Of course women aren't allowed in the priesthood at all and polygamy is still widely practiced among the fundamentalist groups. In total this book displays what a crackpot lot the Mormons really are. This book is well written, easy to read and thoroughly researched. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to gain insight into why atrocities are committed in the name of religion.
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Summary: Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith
Review: On July 24, 1984, Dan and Ron Lafferty cut the throats of their brother Allan's wife, Brenda, and baby daughter, Erica, fulfilling part of a revelation Ron received from God. Ron is now on death row. Brother Dan, serving two life sentences for the murders, has never denied killing his sister-in-law and niece but has absolutely no remorse. I was doing God's will, he says, which is not a crime. Krakauer, best known for his adventure writing in Outside magazine and his books Into the Wild (1995) and Into Thin Air (1997), has shifted gears to tackle issues of faith in this true-crime/religious expose, which delves deep into the heart of Mormon fundamentalism, where revelations from God are commonplace and polygamy not only still exists but is a matter of religious duty. Alternating between the bloodier aspects of the origins of the Mormon Church (Joseph Smith Jr.'s lynching in Nauvoo, Illinois, and the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah) and some of the more extreme aspects of today's Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (fraud, incest, and murder), Krakauer's account is gripping yet deeply disturbing. Not only does he interview Dan, an admitted murderer, but also he talks with former child brides and victims of incest. Debbie Palmer, raised to be an obedient wife in FLDS, married at 14 and became a stepmother to 31 kids, including her own stepmother, which made her a stepmother to her stepmother, and thus a step grandmother to herself. -
Rating:
Summary: Gives an excellent basic understanding of this cult.
Review: Gives an excellent history of the Mormon cult. It would have been better as just a history from its beginnings, but the author cuts back and forth between the early history to the present day. Still, a very fast read.
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Summary: Laugh with the sinners, cry with the Latter-Day Saints
Review: Krakauer steps completely out of his comfort zone, writing high adventure tales, generally first-hand non-fiction, to produce this well-crafted history of an American religious movement, the church of the Latter Day Saints. Those of us in the East know little of Mormonism, especially the story of its unusually founding. Here Krakauer interweaves a story of individual Mormom fundamentalists gone very bad with the less than 200 year history of the movement. Krakauer gives us the full tale of the first prophet Joseph Smith, whose ultimate demise followed a reign of political intrigue, sexual scandals, charges of counterfeiting and occultism, aggressive tactics more typicallly associated with latter-day Philadelphia politicians, and various short-notice late-night movements around the country. Perhaps most famously Smith receives a directive from God that plural marriage is the path of the righteous, and a second directive to tell his first wife that she will be eternally damned if she does not cooperate. After Smith goes on to his just rewards in a jail house shootout, Brigham Young (direct ancestor of the well-known Super Bowl quarterback Steve Young) leads the fledgeling organization into Utah. While all know that Utah is today the LDS headquarters, few remember that this was done to avoid the control of the US government, as Utah was Mexican territory when Young and his band appeared on the desert scene. More bad relations with both Indians and Americans ensue, culminating in murders and atrocities committed on settlers crossing Utah on their way to the newly discovered California gold field settlements. Ultimately Federal troops appear and Washington legislators force the LDS to give up their polygamist ways in order to continue operations. This restructuring of the church gives rise to the fundamentalist movement, which Krakauer traces in detail, as that small sect is ultimately responsible for a disproportionate amount of violence, right up to the present, including the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart. These fundamentalists, long outcast from main-stream Mormonism, embrace polygamy, literal reading of the scriptures, and prophecies of world destruction, leaving only the true believers intact. This is a fascinating read, with the right mix of history and non-fictional accounts of the fundamentalist murder cases. One needs to learn this material to understand the history of our country.
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