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<\/a>Wendy M. Edmonds. InTOXICating Followership in the Jonestown Massacre<\/em>. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021. 71 pages. $60.00 hardback; ebook available.<\/p>\nInTOXICating Followership in the Jonestown Massacre<\/em> isn\u2019t exactly a book about Jonestown\u2014and that is its strength and contribution. Rather, Wendy Edmonds focuses on issues of leadership and followership, and how the dynamic interplay between the two can lead either to successful organization or tragic disaster. Interweaving scholarly analysis with the insights provided by eight Temple survivors in a structured focus group, Edmonds presents a brief, but helpful, look at leaders and followers.<\/p>\n Edmonds\u2019 specialty is organizational leadership. She chairs the Followership Learning Committee of the International Leadership Association, a group founded by Ira Chaleff, author of The Courageous Follower<\/em>. In his Foreword to Edmonds\u2019 book, Chaleff notes that the leader-follower relationship in Peoples Temple was complicated by issues of \u00a0race and class. He writes that Edmonds has written a gripping story that is widely accessible to readers.<\/p>\n It is clear that Edmonds sees her audience as those susceptible to unscrupulous leaders. She dedicates the book \u201cto those consumed by your emotions in the role as followers.\u201d Throughout the book she addresses the reader directly, asking at times \u201cAre we leaders or followers? Why are we in these relationships?\u201d (28). The central question she asks is, \u201cAre you a toxic follower?\u201d (1). She then offers a section at the book\u2019s end entitled \u201cReflections,\u201d consisting of blank pages on which readers may write about their own experiences and thoughts.<\/p>\n Six short chapters comprise the book. Chapter 1 provides an overview of Peoples Temple, Jim Jones, and the events that occurred in Jonestown in 1978. Edmonds rightly notes that most scholarly and media accounts have focused on Jones rather than on the members of Peoples Temple. The discussion in this chapter also concentrates on Jones. Edmonds does devote some attention here to Christine Miller, however, the lone voice of dissent heard on the tape made during the final hours of the community. In an expression unfamiliar to me with respect to Jonestown, Edmonds calls the death ritual the \u201cTranslation.\u201d<\/p>\n The next two chapters form the heart of the book, examining the leadership-followership dynamic. Chapter 2 focuses on power and the leader, and analyzes the different types of power that exist, such as \u201csmart\u201d power and \u201chard\u201d power. Edmonds also distinguishes between sacrificial leadership\u2014such as that exhibited by Underground Railroad organizer Harriet Tubman\u2014and charismatic leadership, which can be used either to cultivate social change or develop personal power. Edmonds notes, for example, that some followers believed Jones had extraordinary powers, such as the ability to raise the dead. Perhaps most important for her readership is the list of five personality characteristics of potential followers that can moderate leader-follower relationships. These include self-concept clarity, self-monitoring, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-awareness.<\/p>\n Chapter 3 shifts to qualities of the follower. Although the word \u201cfollower\u201d has negative connotations, Edmonds points to changing conceptions of followership in the world of organizational management. Effective followers\u2014that is, those who are independent, self-initiators, risk-takers, and problem-solvers\u2014are crucial to the success of any organization. Edmonds also discusses the reasons people have for choosing a particular leader.<\/p>\n The fourth chapter, \u201cThe Survivors Speak,\u201d presents results from the focus group, in which eight former Temple members relate their experiences and observations. The group comprises three men and five women, all of them age 50 and older. includes two African Americans, two Biracial, and four Whites. Six of the eight were children when their parents brought them into the Temple. In addition to reflecting upon their experiences in the Temple and in Jonestown, the participants who deliberately chose to leave explain the factors that went into their decision.<\/p>\n Although Edmonds uses pseudonyms to protect her participants\u2019 privacy, it is hard not to try to deduce with whom she spoke. It is clear that at least one was part of the Eight Revolutionaries who left in 1973, one was Leslie Wagner-Wilson, whose account is well known, and there are others we can guess at.<\/p>\n Chapter 5 presents a model of leadership and followership, in which destructive leaders + susceptible followers + conducive environments = the \u201cToxic Triangle,\u201d a schema developed by organizational psychologists Art Padilla, Robert Hogan, and Robert B. Kaiser. Edmonds examines each element of the triangle and relates it to her Peoples Temple case study. She notes the ways that followers can fuel leaders\u2019 behaviors, impacting outcomes. This is exactly what psychologist of religion Archie Smith Jr. describes in his account of audience corruption, though Edmonds does not cite him. (See We Need to Press Forward: Black Religion and Jonestown, Twenty Years Later<\/a>.)<\/p>\n In the final chapter, \u201cToxic Followership,\u201d Edmonds expands upon the Toxic Triangle. She develops the image of an eye in which each element leads to further entanglement within a destructive group. Clearly the assumption of the book is that any follower has the potential to be misled and manipulated.<\/p>\n InTOXICating Followership <\/em>concludes on a personal note in \u201cFinal Thoughts.\u201d Edmonds asks, \u201cHas there been a time when you\u2019ve seen a pattern of unethical behavior by leaders in business, politics, churches, or communities? Sure, you have. Me too\u201d (61). She advises those who are followers to \u201crecognize, refute, and restore,\u201d when they think they may have fallen into a trap, and offers steps toward healing and realignment.<\/p>\n The clear strength of this work is its discussion of leaders and followers and the way the two mutually interact and affect the thoughts and actions of the other. Less strong is the discussion of Jonestown, which takes an advocacy approach and makes occasional factual errors. I was surprised to read Jim Jones described as a \u201cgangster\u201d \u2013 or \u201cgangsta\u201d \u2013 several times, and that greed was his primary motivating factor. Edmonds herself notes that narcissism, insecurity, and self-absorption seemed to be Jones\u2019 primary motivations, so it is unclear why she allows some comments to stand unless it is simply to let survivors tell the truth as they see it.<\/p>\n Anyone who has been in a destructive group \u2013 whether religious, political, business, or social \u2013 will benefit from Wendy Edmonds\u2019 analysis of the dynamics of followership. Her helpful insights and beneficial suggestions are valuable. That is why the steep price for the book is a shame, since the cost might prevent those who would benefit most from reading it.<\/p>\n (Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Rebecca Moore\u00a0is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. She has written and published extensively on Peoples Temple and Jonestown. Rebecca is also the co-manager of this website.\u00a0Her other articles in this edition of\u00a0<\/em>the jonestown report\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>Bringing Release, Finding Peace: Memories of Vernon Gosney<\/a><\/em>; George Donald Beck<\/a>;\u00a0A Monumental Problem: Memorializing the Jonestown Dead<\/a>; and Spreadsheet Offers Downloadable Demographic Tool for Researchers<\/a>. Her collection of articles on this site may be found\u00a0here<\/a>. She may be reached at\u00a0<\/em>remoore@sdsu.edu<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wendy M. Edmonds. InTOXICating Followership in the Jonestown Massacre. Emerald Publishing Limited, 2021. 71 pages. $60.00 hardback; ebook available. InTOXICating Followership in the Jonestown Massacre isn\u2019t exactly a book about Jonestown\u2014and that is its strength and contribution. Rather, Wendy Edmonds focuses on issues of leadership and followership, and how the dynamic interplay between the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":111220,"menu_order":38,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-109967","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/109967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109967"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/109967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111646,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/109967\/revisions\/111646"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}