Death in the Jungle
Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown
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- $169.00
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- $169.00
Descripción editorial
How did Jim Jones, the leader of Peoples Temple, convince more than 900 of his followers to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced punch? From a master of narrative nonfiction comes a chilling chronicle of one of the most notorious cults in American history.
A YALSA EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION WINNER • A SCBWI GOLDEN KITE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Publishers Weekly, BookPage, Horn Book, Booklist, The Bulletin of The Center for Children's Books, School Library Journal
Using riveting first-person accounts, award-winning author Candace Fleming reveals the makings of a monster: from Jones’s humble origins as a child of the Depression… to his founding of a group whose idealistic promises of equality and justice attracted thousands of followers… to his relocation of Temple headquarters from California to an unsettled territory in Guyana, South America, which he dubbed "Jonestown”… to his transformation of Peoples Temple into a nefarious experiment in mind-control.
And Fleming heart-stoppingly depicts Jones’s final act, persuading his followers to swallow fatal doses of cyanide—to “drink the kool-aid,” as it became known—as a test of their ultimate devotion.
Here is a sweeping story that traces, step by step, the ways in which one man slowly indoctrinated, then murdered, 900 innocent, well- meaning people. And how a few members, Jones' own son included, stood up to him... but not before it was too late.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In riveting detail, Fleming (The Enigma Girls) recounts the murder of more than 900 Peoples Temple followers in Guyana by American cult leader Jim Jones (1931–1978). A prologue poses complicated questions ("What caused seemingly ‘normal' people to get caught up in something so fanatical?"), provides historical and contemporary cult definitions, and includes examples of their potentially destructive values and demands. Searing accounts of Peoples Temple survivors and defectors go on to examine Jones's personal history, which a quote from the subject's son Stephan asserts one must know to understand the formation of the organization. Frank text notes Jones was "bossy and controlling. And always got his way" during his upbringing in Indiana. Struggling to make ends meet in adulthood, Jones earns money and gains his initial following by traveling with the revival circuit, a nomadic group of preachers who "claimed to have been called by God to spread the Gospel." An author's note highlights Fleming's hope that this fascinating and disturbing work will help readers "recognize the destructive groups in their own midst." Includes b&w photographs, biographies of key players, and source list. Ages 12–up.
