Teaching Under the Banner of Heaven : Testing the Limits of Tolerance in America
Austin, Michael,Decker, Mark T.
Peculiar Portrayals : Mormons on the Page, Stage, and Screen
Logan, UT
Utah State University Press
2010
62-86
Kolkmeyer discusses his experience teaching Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith to a culturally diverse class at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York. He outlines the book's appeal and structure, as well as its controversies and student responses to them. He discusses how a book about an American people trying to find the balance between living their religion and culture and assimilating into the larger American context made the students (many of them first or second generation immigrants) view their own situation in a new way.