sansets 's review for:

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

3.0

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Entertaining and well researched, but parts three and four lagged for me for the same reason - I just don't know how fair it is to the Mormons to tie the violence of the 1800s to their doctrines/faith rather than acknowledging that so much of the violence that Krakauer describes is just normal for US imperial expansion during that same time period. (Also he never quite manages to figure out how to deal with the fact that a lot of the violence in current fundamentalist Mormon sects is just US fundamentalism cultural norms, but he does make more of an effort to draw those connections.) I don't think it's ENTIRELY unfair (hence the three star review and the fact that I finished it) but there's a lot of nuance that is lacking and the third section in particular felt lazy in a structural sense.