MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

On November 18, 1978, the Rev. James Warren Jones and 913 of his followers perished in the jungles of Guyana in what Jones called “an act of revolutionary suicide.” In the nearly 41 years since this event, scholars from various fields of academic study have tried to understand better how and why Jones, the government and media officials, and his followers died that day. Jonestown and the people associated with it are well-documented memoirs and inquiries, most of them through the lenses of sociology, psychology, and theology. This writing seeks to move in a different direction, specifically examining how Jones and the Peoples Temple leadership both masterfully manipulated and failed to understand the art of war-driven rhetoric that brought members into the church and ultimately led to their demise. First, the research will illustrate how the marriage of war, politics, and social strife within mid-century America impacted Jones and his church within the context of the 1960s and 1970s. Particular knowledge of this era is critical. One must understand the emergence of radical social movements, the necessity of religion everyday life, ongoing military strife and issues regarding both domestic and foreign policy, and the changing dynamic of the American families and values to make sense of this complicated time in modern history. This writing aims to answer how Jones, drunk with power and his ever-present narrative of war, even in his self-proclaimed egalitarian environment, created both short-term and long-term impacts on one of the oldest forms of human community-building, institutionalized religion.