Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the societal influences of the Jonestown Massacre and the way it was perceived by the people and politicians of the United States as a whole and, more specifically, those in San Francisco. Immense societal paranoia, rooted in Cold War anxieties and social sentiments of the 1960s and 1970s, created the environment in which Jones and the Peoples Temple emerged, laid the groundwork for the tragic Jonestown Massacre, and shaped remembrances of the Peoples Temple post-massacre. In their attempts at understanding the massacre, American society combined their preexisting fears of cults and social deviants with their preconceived notions about the Peoples Temple and their leader, Jim Jones, to create a collective memory of the Peoples Temple steeped in myth and fear. While the United States seemed enraptured by the gruesome story of the massacre, many San Franciscans wanted to wipe their hands clean of the ordeal, leaving survivors and grieving relatives to navigate post-massacre trauma almost entirely alone. This thesis utilizes historical newspapers, archived letters and remembrances from massacre victims, massacre survivors, and their family members, and government documents to analyze the complex social and cultural history of these events. I argue that social anxieties and paranoia influenced the Peoples Temple’s exodus and subsequent destruction in Guyana, the sensationalist news reports, the harmful stereotypes, and the reactions of the public toward survivors and toward the dead.