JONESTOWN AND PEOPLES TEMPLE was a communal religious settlement in the jungles of Guyana founded and led by the Reverend James Warren "Jim" Jones (1931–1978). Nearly 1,000 people had come to the South American country in the mid-1970s intending to build an integrated agricultural utopia. Things began to unravel, however, when California Congressman Leo Ryan (1925–1978), accompanied by journalists and former members, arrived to investigate persistent reports of brainwashing and abuse. After Ryan and four others were murdered by temple members, Jones commanded his followers to kill themselves and their children: Over 913 people died on November 18, 1978. In the aftermath, popular media and anticult activists depicted Jonestown as the epitome of dangerous "cults."

Rise and Demise

Jonestown began as a ministry of the Reverend Jim Jones, who blended Pentecostal religion, socialism, and racial harmony into a distinctive political theology. In 1955 he established the Peoples Temple...