Hearing the Voices of Jonestown: Putting a Human Face on an American Tragedy
Mary Maaga
(Author)
Catherine Wessinger
(Other)
21,000+ Reviews
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world
Description
Hearing the Voices of Jonestown restores the individual voices that have been erased so that we can better understand what was created - and destroyed - at Jonestown, and why. Piecing together information from interviews with former group members, archival research, and diaries and letters of those who died there, Mary McCormick Maaga describes the women leaders as educated political activists who were passionately committed to achieving social justice through communal life. Maaga's book analyzes the historical and sociological factors which, she states, contributed to the mass suicide, such as growing criticism from the larger community and the influx of an upper class, educated leadership that eventually became more concerned with the symbolic effects of the organization than with the daily lives of its members.
Product Details
Price
$29.95
$27.85
Publisher
Syracuse University Press
Publish Date
May 01, 1998
Pages
216
Dimensions
6.25 X 9.25 X 0.83 inches | 1.1 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780815605157
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliateAbout the Author
Mary McCormick Maaga received her PhD with distinction from Drew University where she was invited to study as the Shirley Sugarman Scholar in Religion and Society. She lectured at the University of Stirling, Scotland, in the fields of new religions, women and religion, and anthropology of religion. Dr. Maaga is an Elder in Full Connection in the United Methodist Church, currently serving a local Church in Tulare, California.
Reviews
Maaga's work makes an important contribution to our understanding of the Peoples Temple community and the complex social dynamics that, in her reading, led inexorably toward mass suicide/murder.-- "American Historical Review"
Extremely provocative and certainly an indispensable source.-- "Journal of the Scientific Study of Religion"
Maaga's penetrating portrait of the Jonestown event will leave readers asking 'How different am I from those who died at Jonestown?'-- "Publishers Weekly"
Extremely provocative and certainly an indispensable source.-- "Journal of the Scientific Study of Religion"
Maaga's penetrating portrait of the Jonestown event will leave readers asking 'How different am I from those who died at Jonestown?'-- "Publishers Weekly"