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Under the banner of heaven : a story of violent faith  Cover Image Book Book

Under the banner of heaven : a story of violent faith

Krakauer, Jon. (Author).

Summary: 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 ₃divinely inspired₄ 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.

Item details

  • ISBN: 0385509510
  • ISBN: 9780385509510
  • ISBN: 9781400032808
  • ISBN: 1400032806
  • Physical Description: print
    xxiii, 372 pages : maps ; 25 cm
  • Edition: 1st ed.
  • Publisher: New York : Doubleday, 2003.
  • Badges:
    • Top Circs: 2 / 5.0
    • Top Holds Over Last 5 Years: 3 / 5.0
    • Most Copies: 3 / 5.0

Contents / Notes

Bibliography, etc. Note: Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-358) and index.
Subject: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Mormon fundamentalism
Fondamentalisme mormon
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Mormon fundamentalism
Mormonen
Fundamentalisme
Geweldsdelicten
Mormon fundamentalism
United States New York (State) New York
Genre: True crime stories.
True crime stories.
Annotations (Provenance) -- 20th century.
Récits criminels.

Currently available copies

  • 81 / 84 copies available at PINES

Holds

  • 1 current hold on 84 total copies.
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Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status  
Athens Regional Library System:
      Athens-Clarke County Library
NONFIC 289.33 KRAKAUER
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31001000413808 NONFICTION Available
Athens Regional Library System:
      Athens-Clarke County Library
NONFIC 289.33 KRAKAUER
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31001001057109 NONFICTION Checked out
Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System:
      Appleby Branch Library
289.3 KRA
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31019000665474 ADULT Available
Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System:
      Augusta-Richmond Co. Public Lib.
289.3 KRA
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31019000665425 ADULT Available
Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System:
      Diamond Lakes Branch Library
289.3 KRA
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Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System:
      Friedman Branch Library
289.3 KRA
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31019000665524 ADULT Available
Augusta-Richmond County Public Library System:
      Maxwell Branch Library
289.3 KRA
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31019000665573 ADULT Available
Azalea Regional Library System:
      Hancock County Public Library
289.33 KRA
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31056005537183 ADULT Available
Azalea Regional Library System:
      Stanton Memorial Library
289.33 KRA
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31056005458679 ADULT Available
Bartram Trail Regional Library:
      Mary Willis Library
289.33 K
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31004000099106 NONFIC Available
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