By Cathleen A. Mann on October 6, 2016
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This magazine contains new and expansive coverage of the 1978 implosion in Guyana of the Jonestown Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, a major historical event. A fierce and demanding cult, Jonestown, through its leader, (The Rev.) Jim Jones, accumulated financial and enrollment resources from a small church in Indiana to a larger socialist movement in Guyana. Inner tensions in the group are described in a synoptic way by former members and their families, including retired professor, Dr. Rebecca Moore, who lends her expertise as a clarion call. Dr. Benjamin Zablocki, emeritus professor at Rutgers, provides his theories on brainwashing, which are summarized and explained thoroughly and with great precision. Zablocki, a sociologist, and academician, uses reflective thought and analysis, to assist the reader through the granite of actual and abstract thought in studying brainwashing. The end commentary and analysis at the conclusion of the magazine provides a touchstone to conceptualize the forces which not only form cults, but which compel members, outsiders, and critics to provide explanation for cult dynamics. As we approach the 40th anniversary of the murders in Jonestown, extra attention to revisit the horror of it all can be started here with excellent analysis.
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