Politics and the Occult: The Left, the Right, and the Radically Unseen | 
 enlarge | Author: Gary Lachman
Publisher: Quest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.97
You Save: $7.98 (40%)
New (29) Used (6) from $11.97
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 154445
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Quest Ed
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.2
ISBN: 0835608573
Dewey Decimal Number: 130.9
EAN: 9780835608572
ASIN: 0835608573
Publication Date: November 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The gritty business of politics is not something we usually associate with the occult. But esoteric beliefs have influenced the destiny of nations since the time of ancient Egypt and China, when decisions of state were based on portents and astrology, to today, when presidents and prime ministers privately consult self-proclaimed seers. Politics and the Occult offers a lively history of this enduring phenomenon. Author and cultural pundit Gary Lachman provocativly questions whether the separation of church and state so dear to modern political philosophy should be maintained. A few of his fascinating topics include the fate of the Knights Templar and the medieval Gnostic Cathars, the occult roots of America and the French Revolution in Freemasonry, Gurdjieff and the swastika, Soviet interest in UFOs, the CIA and LSD, the Age of Aquarius, the millenarian politics that inform the struggle with Islamic terrorism, fundamentalism, and more.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Another Lachman tour de force October 24, 2008
Mark Newbold (Pittsburg, KS United States)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Gary Lachman has provided what will stand as a definitive guide to the Occult's real and imagined political agendas and alleged mechanizations. From the attempted geopolitical Rosicrucian inspired government of Frederick V of the Palatinate, an event first documented in depth by Dame Frances Yates in her "The Rosicrucian Enlightenment", to the various esoteric agendas borne out by parties in the French Revolution, to a brief bias free history of Freemasonry and dispelling much of the nonsense and rubbish that has been written about Adam Weishaupt & the Illuminati. All against a historical background of how these various esoteric agendas influenced not only politics but its impact on societies as well. This is social history at its most thought provoking.
Like all of Lachman's works, this is both scholarly and approachable with a style and pace equal to any political thriller on the market today. Rich in detail with a calvacade of portraits of individuals who made their mark in the western esoteric tradition. Lachman clearly pays homage to researchers that have gone before in exploring similar terrain, including Christopher McIntosh and the late James Webb.
I must also recognize Quest Books, the publishing wing of the Theosophical Society in America. For too long they published the staid and rather tame canon of Theosophical literature and its stable of writers. With this work and Mr. Lachman's previous Quest book, "In Search of P.D. Ouspensky", as well as other recent titles, Quest has rescued itself from the oblivion of mundane metaphysical comfortability.
This work concludes with a concise and brilliant overview of Geunonian inspired Traditionalism, leading one to conclude with Sinclair Lewis, "When Fascism comes...it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." Or add the religious symbol of your choice in lieu of the cross. Each new Gary Lachman book is a cause for provocative study and reading pleasure among psychonauts, students of history and the esoteric. Highly recommended.
|
|
|
