Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jun 13, 2007 stephanie rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-history, non-fiction, philosophy-religion-etc

woo, i'm ready for book group!

i was pleasantly surprised by this. who knew mormons were really so crazy? i knew some things about them, but i had no real clue . . . i also didn't realize there were so many factions and it kind of cracks me up that you can have fundamentalists in such a "new" religion . . . it's also weird to think that it's such a fast-growing religion, and that there are more mormons than jews in america.

what was most interesting, i think, was the way the mormons used strategi ...more

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Jul 30, 2008 Ann rated it really liked it

A woman and her baby are viciously murdered by a couple of Mormon fundamentalists who assert that God instructed them to carry out blood atonement. Krakauer gives an in-depth history of the Mormon church and the development of fundamentalist polygamist sects in order to shed light on the theological background and psychology of the killers.

Really fascinating, but at times I thought maybe it's not fair to god-fearing law-abiding monogamous Latter Day Saints to put their history into this context ...more

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May 04, 2008 Lisa rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2008, bookish, nonfiction

While I'm still not sure if I think this is a good book (I'm still not entirely sure what Krakauer was trying to do with it), it was worth reading for the fascinating/horrifying stuff about fundamentalist Mormons and the founding of the religion. Wow. I'm still not over it. I have not been so angry reading a book in, well, I can't recall. ...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Jen Peters rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Incredibly informative while remaining interesting. The story of the Mormon faith, FLDS (known for polygamy) and LDS churches and how they were created. Parallels with any religion by showing how religion can be interpreted in such incredibly different ways and the power that faith can yield.

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Mar 27, 2008 Rae rated it liked it

Shelves: religiosity

Krakauer should stick to writing about things other than religion and violence. I found this quite biased and inaccurate. That being said, it was still an interesing read.

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