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| Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple |  | Author: Rebecca Moore
Publisher: Praeger
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
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Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 275,131
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 179
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0313352518
Dewey Decimal Number: 988.1
EAN: 9780313352515
ASIN: 0313352518
Publication Date: March 20, 2009
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Product Description
Most people understand Peoples Temple through its violent end in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978, where more than 900 Americans committed murder and suicide in a jungle commune. Media coverage of the event sensationalized the group and obscured the background of those who died. The view that emerged thirty years ago continues to dominate understanding of Jonestown today, despite dozens of books, articles, and documentaries that have appeared. This book provides a fresh perspective on Peoples Temple and Jonestown, locating the group within the context of religion in America and offering a contemporary history that corrects the inaccuracies often associated with the group and its demise. Although Peoples Temple has some of the characteristics many associate with cults, it also shares many characteristics of Black Religion in America. Moreover, it is crucial to understand the organization within the social and political movements of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Race, class, colonialism, gender, and other issues dominated the times, and so dominated the consciousness of the members of Peoples Temple. Here, Moore, who lost three family members in the events in Guyana, offers a framework of U.S. social, cultural, and political history that helps readers better understand Peoples Temple and its members.
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| Customer Reviews:
 An excellent introduction to the subject September 5, 2009
Matthew Farrell (Tempe, Arizona)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The author of this book was not a member of Peoples Temple, but two of her sisters were and both died that fateful day in Guyana. Understandably, Ms. Moore has spent the past three decades trying to come to terms with that and figure out just what, exactly, happened. This book is her latest exploration into that dark topic.
Despite the personal connection, she is able to treat the topic neutrally and with a level head that is quite refreshing from much of the other material available on Peoples Temple, which is either unabashedly hostile or fawning hero-worship. It is, of course, a difficult balance: although there is much to deride Jones for, aspects of his ministry are indeed worthy of praise, and the book shows both the good and the bad.
This book seems more of a general introduction to the strange world of Jim Jones. I don't doubt that she could write a thousand-page magnum opus on the subject, but UJ&PT is more of an edited highlight of facts and interesting trivia that seems designed to pique the reader's interest on the topic and encourage further research. Indeed, each chapter ends with a "suggested reading" entry for just that purpose.
I learned quite a bit from this book, and I think that even experts on the subject will glean a few new nuggets of information to help fill in the puzzle that is Peoples Temple.
If you read only one book about Peoples Temple this should be it August 3, 2009
Tusnelda (Copenhagen, Denmark)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The seasoned student of Peoples Temple may already be familiar with some of the primary source material in this new book by Rebecca Moore. However, more than just retelling the story of Peoples Temple through the primary sources, Dr. Moore offers something not seen before in a book about the Temple - an invitation to look at the sources the way a scholar would. This means that the book is both an introduction to Peoples Temple as an object of study and an introduction to the scholarly field of religious studies. This is primarily by way of example, but in the introduction "Framing the Subject", Dr. Moore addresses the conditions for the production of a large part of the body of knowledge of Peoples Temple: that much of the press coverage and the first books about the Tem-ple were based on information of defectors (because the vast majority of the community had per-ished in Jonestown) and thus were quite biased. Dr. Moore also underlines the importance of being critical of our own language because the language we use to describe the object of study guides what we look at and therefore shapes what we learn. The introduction in other words provides the reader with tools to evaluate information about Peoples Temple and to be critical of the way we construct Peoples Temple in our research - tools that Dr. Moore herself applies throughout the book.
The book is comprised of an introduction (as described above), and nine chapters. Chapter 1 pro-vides a short biography of Jim Jones, chapter 2 and 3 outlines the history of the organization, in-cluding the change in focus from religion to political goals, and the early history of Jonestown. Chapter 4 analyzes the opposition against the Temple: defectors, the Concerned Relatives, the me-dia and different government agencies. Chapter 5 analyzes the conditions in Jonestown. Chapter 6 looks at Congressman Ryan's visit to Jonestown and the tragic events of 18 November 1978. Chap-ter 7 outlines the handling of the bodies and the process by which the people who died at Jonestown were dehumanized. Chapter 8 examines how Jonestown has re-entered American culture and out-lines four canons for this re-entry: the popular canon, the scholarly canon, the canon of conspiracy theory and the artistic canon. Chapter 9 examines how survivors - loyalists and defectors - have put their lives together after the tragedy.
Dr. Moore draws on a wealth of sources, including primary source material recovered from Jones-town and released under the Freedom of Information Act, first hand knowledge from her own ex-perience as a family member of two women in the Temple, first person accounts, news coverage and popular and scholarly resources, but instead of burying the reader in information, Dr. Moore carefully connects the dots and presents the story of Peoples Temple with all its ambiguity and con-tradictions without letting the reader get lost at any point.
If your ambition is to understand Peoples Temple and Jonestown - not judging, not condemning - then "Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple" is the book for you.
 Poorly Written/Fictional At Best May 30, 2009
Honest John/Bo Obama (Washington, DC)
1 out of 16 found this review helpful
This book is totally fictional. It is just another attempt for a self serving White American women to excuse racial genocide of Black Americans by a White man. This was not mass suicide it is and was GENOCIDE! Just like the Jews were victims of GENOCIDE. Please tell the truth next time or do not write another book that fails to give dignity to victims and survivors.
I find the use of the term "defector" as a very offensive word to those who did not allow themselves to be murdered by Jim Jones. By selecting to live and live life abundantly, I think history would agree with me that these people should be referred to as what they are...."VALIANT SURVIVORS".
I just kept wanting more to read! April 11, 2009
Sylviastel
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
Dr. Rebecca Elaine Moore sheds light and information regarding Jonestown, Jim Jones, and the People's Temple along with her husband, Fielding MacGehee. For Dr. Moore, it's both personal and professional since she lost her older sister, Carolyn Layton, and younger sister, Anne Moore, in Jonestown on November 18, 1978 along with Carolyn and Jim Jones' son, Jim Jon Prokes also known as Kimo Prokes. His stepfather was Michael Prokes. The overwelming tragedy of over 900 lives being lost in murder and suicide has been dismissed as brainwashed robots and zombies under the rule of a madman. You know the phrase, Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Under Jim Jones, his followers including Dr. Moore's sisters and nephew succumbed to the same fate. In Annie's suicide letter, we died because you wouldn't let us live is a hard line to forget. The reasoning behind Revolutionary Suicide comes across in depth in every book I read. I am grateful to Dr. Moore and others who are now sharing their stories. It is hard to imagine shunning people because of their connections to such a tragedy or catastrophe of biblical proportions. Unless we understand why such an event happened, we will never be able to prevent another situation occurring. Many of the followers were dehumanized after their deaths since their decomposed bodies and remains laid for days under the brutal South American sun. Then there was the argument between Guyanese and American governments over who should get the bodies. Then they were sent to Dover, Delaware, about 3,000 miles away from California where most of the deceased had grieving relatives, neighbors, and friends. Dr. Moore knows personally and firsthand about Jonestown, the People's Temple, and Jim JOnes from her sisters' relationships.
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