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What it argues
Under the Banner of Heaven opens with a specific crime: in 1984, Ron and Dan Lafferty — members of a fundamentalist Mormon splinter group — murdered their sister-in-law Brenda and her infant daughter, acting on a "revelation" they believed came directly from God. Krakauer uses this crime as a lens to examine both the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the broader question of what happens when religious conviction becomes absolute and immune to outside scrutiny.
The book moves between two timelines. One follows the Lafferty brothers from their conversion to fundamentalism through their arrest and trial. The other traces the history of Mormonism from Joseph Smith's founding visions through the practice of polygamy, the church's violent confrontations with the federal government, and the ongoing existence of fundamentalist splinter groups that the mainstream LDS church disavows. Krakauer is a thorough researcher and the historical sections are among the strongest in his work — detailed, largely fair to his sources, willing to let the complexity of Mormon history speak for itself.
What it gets right
- 1.
Ron and Dan Lafferty committed the 1984 murders of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter after Ron received what he called a revelation commanding it. The murders are central to the book's argument about the relationship between absolute faith and violence.
- 2.
Fundamentalist Mormon splinter groups practicing polygamy and claiming direct divine revelation have existed since Brigham Young's era. The mainstream LDS church's disavowal of them does not make them theologically incoherent on their own terms.
- 3.
Joseph Smith's founding of Mormonism — the revelations, the golden plates, the polygamy — is treated by Krakauer as historically problematic. Mormon scholars dispute this reading, and the book's reliability is weakest where it relies on the most skeptical sources.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Jon Krakauer is an American journalist and author best known for Into the Wild and Into Thin Air. He has written extensively for Outside magazine and other publications, and his books consistently combine meticulous research with high narrative tension. Under the Banner of Heaven was his first book to focus primarily on religion and criminal justice rather than extreme outdoor environments. He has also written Missoula, an account of campus sexual assault in a college town. Krakauer is known for embedding deeply in his subjects and for writing with evident moral urgency.
