Student Paper Section

Over the years, the editors of this report and people on this website’s Speakers Bureau have assisted scores of students in secondary schools, colleges and universities, and graduate programs in their research into different aspects of Peoples Temple history. Below are some of the papers which have come out of that research.

1. Secondary school
   1. How did Jim Jones manage to gain such control over his followers? by Tim Brooks (2007)
   2. A Comparison of the Methods of Recruitment and Retention of Malevolent and Benevolent Cults, by Ashton Brower (2010)
   3. History Day Project on Jonestown Has Lessons for Teenagers of Today, by Hillary Contreras (2009)
   4. Pulling Meaning From Rough Drafts: Jonestown in American History, by Molly Doris-Pierce (2010)
   1. Documenting the Peoples Temple Story
   5. Cults and their Leaders: An Introduction, by Oliver Everhard (2009)
      1. Cults and their Leaders: An Exposition
      2. An Interview with Don Beck
      3. A Listing of Cults in America
   6. Success in the Peoples Temple Cult, by Caley Follmer (2010)
   1. Why Peoples Temple?
   7. The Jonestown Project, by Abbey Gunderson & Jessica Spiro (2008)
   8. “My Journey to Jonestown” by Richard Klatt (2006)
   9. “For The People: The Story of the Peoples Temple” by Richard Klatt (2006)
   10. “The Tragedy of 1978” by Raul Kohl (2006)
   11. Was It Suicide or Murder? by Abi K. Kosmas (2009)
       
   12. The Brainwashing of Peoples Temple by Kyle McCloy (2011)
   13. Behind the Conspiracy Theories of Jonestown by Nicole Mekler (2007)
       1. Why do conspiracy theories surround the evidence of the Jonestown massacre?
       2. Methodology
   14. Jim Jones and the History of Peoples Temple by Antoinette Pick-Jones (2007)
       1. Escape to Nowhere
   15. Jonestown Suicide, by Razzerpie (2010)
   16. The Media and the Jonestown Suicides, by Cressida Rigney (2011)
   1. Media Standing in the Way of History
   17. Learning About Jonestown by Rachel Steele (2007)
       1. Tragedy Of 1978: Massacre At Jonestown
       2. Bibliography
   18. Jonestown Project Finishes Third in Florida Competition by Kaitlin Thornburg and Nina Barron (2007)
   19. The Jonestown Massacre, by Matt Williams (2008)
   20. Forgotten Souls by Laura Woods (2005)
   21. The psychological massacre: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Rose Wunrow (2011)
       1. The birth of an investigation
   22. Tapes Reveal Jones as Murderer by Sheila Yohnk
       
       
2. College and graduate school
   1. Jim Jones and His Peoples Temple: Dual Racial Identities, Dual Results, by Brooke Agee (2008)
   2. Followership in Peoples Temple: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, by Wendy M. Edmonds (2009)
   3. State of Mind, by Ruth Engler (2008)
   4. Religion and Violence: The Consequence of Bad Leadership by Helen Gerety (2011)
      1. A Researcher's Adventure: Writing a Senior Thesis
   5. Media Analysis: Jonestown, by Lina Kern (2012)
   6. My Interest in Peoples Temple, by Kristian Klippenstein (2009)
   7. Obey Your Father: Jim Jones’ Rhetoric of Deadly Persuasion, by Jacob Neighbors (2012)
   8. Leadership Styles: Martin Luther King vs. Jim Jones, by Tina Parrish (2008)
   9. Preparing to Sell Jonestown, by Catherine B. Peschman (2009)
   10. “We Win When We Go Down” by Stephen C. Robinson (2007)
   11. Culture, Charisma and Peoples Temple by Devin Ross (2007)
   12. Remembering Peoples Temple, by Chloe Schildhause (2010)
       1. Peoples Temple in Media, Memory & History
   13. Living in a “Socialist Paradise” by Logan Silva (2007)
       1. The Civil Rights Movement in Mendocino County, California
   14. White Nights In Guyana by Ann Kristin Svendsen (2007)
   15. Jonestown As a Reflection of American Society by Nora Woods (2011)
       1. Shaping Religious Identity And Expression