Under the Banner of Heaven

True crime

First published: 2003
Print length: 399 pagesAnchor Books, 2004

Description

Jon Krakauer investigates a double murder committed by two brothers who claimed divine authorization, placing the crime within the history and contested traditions of the Latter-day Saint movement. He moves between the development of the mainstream LDS Church and fundamentalist communities across the American West, Canada, and Mexico, where leaders defend polygamy and reject both civil authority and the modern church. Through this parallel narrative, questions of prophecy, messianic conviction, uncompromising faith, and violence repeatedly converge. The book does not treat extremism as an isolated aberration; it asks how religious certainty can harden into a justification for domination or murder, and how a distinctly American history of revelation and dissent continues to shape lives beyond institutional boundaries.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Direct · Journalistic

Pace

Variable

Tone

Cerebral · Dark · Unsettling

Structure

Argumentative · Braided · Multiple timelines

Focus

Argument · Ideas · Information

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 4 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

CommunityCrime and punishmentMoralityOppressionPowerReligion and faith

About Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer is an American writer, journalist, and mountaineer whose narrative nonfiction combines investigative reporting with close attention to people operating under pressure. His subjects range from wilderness and high-altitude climbing to religious violence, war, and failures of the justice system. He often builds a larger institutional or cultural inquiry around an intensely examined life or case. Into the Wild reconstructs Chris McCandless’s journey by retracing his route and investigating his choices, while Into Thin Air draws on Krakauer’s firsthand experience of the disastrous 1996 Everest expedition. For Where Men Win Glory, he used journals, letters, interviews, conversations with fellow soldiers, and research in Afghanistan to examine Pat Tillman’s story. Under the Banner of Heaven places a double murder within the history and contested traditions of Mormonism, and Missoula follows sexual-assault cases through police, university, prosecutorial, and court processes. Krakauer’s work moves between intimate narrative and documented systems, setting personal conviction, ambition, and vulnerability against the institutions and communities that shape their consequences.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Anchor Books
Language: English
ISBN: 9781400032808

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