# John R. Hall American sociologist (UC Davis) and scholar of religion, apocalyptic movements, and collective violence. He is best known for *Gone from the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History* (1987) and *Apocalypse Observed* (2000), which analyze how new religious movements turn toward mass violence in interaction with their opponents and the surrounding society. His work is a key sociological reference for the study of [[Doomsday Cults]] and the dynamics that precede events like Jonestown and Waco. > [!note] Stub > Minimum-viable page created to resolve an inbound wikilink. Expand with his interactionist theory of religious violence.