The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn (review)

Before the tragic events of November 1978, Jim Jones and Peoples Temple were well known almost exclusively to those with whom they came into direct contact. After the more than 900 deaths in the jungle of Guyana at the Peoples Temple Agricultural Mission, both Jones and the religious community that he founded were understood primarily through the prism of those events. In popular perception "Jonestown" became and has remained a terrifying symbol of the dangers of "cult" membership, as in Rabbi Maurice Davis' early assertion that "the path of the cults leads to Jonestowns." Readers of Nova Religio are likely to be well aware of the exaggerations and simplifications that undergird such perceptions. Guinn's lucid and well-researched history lends substantial detail to such an awareness of the complexity of Jones, the religious group he led, and its ultimate fate. It will provide helpful background information to those who teach about Jonestown as well as to students who want to learn more about it than the stereotypical story, especially since most students today confront Jonestown and Peoples Temple as history rather than a current event.

Based on some fifty interviews and careful reading of the material in the FBI files on Jonestown, Guinn's narrative roots Jones and his early followers, including his wife Marceline, in the specifics of time, place (especially Lynn, Richmond, and eventually Indianapolis, Indiana), and family. Guinn shows how some of Jones' most prominent personality traits as a leader of Peoples Temple—such as his love of dramatic ritual performances, his tendencies toward paranoia and fantasy, his claim to have special powers, his fascination with sex, and his preaching of racial equality—were all in evidence during his early years and were incubated in his family, particularly in his relationship with his mother. One effect of Guinn's presentation is to stress the continuities between different phases of Jones' life.

Guinn ventures relatively few analytical observations, which highlights the ones that he does make. About midway through his story, Guinn begins a chapter with the observation that "In years to come, Jim Jones would frequently be compared to murderous demagogues such as Adolf Hitler and Charles Manson" (172). He argues that such comparisons "completely misinterpret, and historically misrepresent" Jones' appeal to his followers. Instead, Guinn is convinced that Jones was frequently sincere in his desire to help people who were experiencing oppression (see 216). In accordance with that, he cites a statement from Tim Carter that argues that the members of Peoples Temple were not mindless robots. Rather, many of them were idealists who actually believed they were building a better society and were willing to suffer extensively, even under Jones' sometimes capricious behavior, to bring it into existence.

This is a helpful addition to the literature on Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. While it does not break any new interpretive ground, it does add substantial historical detail to our understanding of Jones and Peoples Temple in their various contexts.