Friday, December 15, 2017

Review: The Road to Jonestown - Jeff Guinn

Jim Jones and the Jonestown suicides remain one of the most horrific cult moments of all time.  I was just a kid at the time and was so horrified by the whole thing.

This book tells the story of Jim Jones from his childhood to the formation of the Peoples Temple in Indiana where it was a positive force for change in race relations and care of the needy.  Then of course, over the years, as it grew, Jones became more and more erratic and unstable.  It shows the progression of the insanity that would culminate in the deaths of 918 people.

This is the best book I have read on the subject and makes the people and their choices more understandable of a terrible story that will hopefully never happen again.

The book is well researched and written.  In fact, almost 20% of the book is end notes.

Terri

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting study. It's so sad that such lofty ideals that start off as something positive often abruptly go south down some dark road, taking all involved with them.

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