Politics and the occult

the left, the right, and the radically unseen

No cover

Gary Lachman: Politics and the occult (2008, Quest Books/Theosophical Pub. House)

English language

Published Nov. 10, 2008 by Quest Books/Theosophical Pub. House.

ISBN:
978-0-8356-0857-2
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (1 review)

1 edition

Review of 'Politics and the occult' on Goodreads

4 stars

Not quite as dense as Sex and Rockets (and about even with Lachman's Crowley biography, in terms of readability), this book nevertheless demonstrates both a breadth and depth of scholarship on occult history that's remarkable. It's not a casual read but one that might serve as a gateway to research into other works -- a starting point for looking up the details of individual movements that might catch your eye, connecting them together on a macro scale.



I always find Lachman's books to be a slog to read, simply because their prose is workmanlike rather than polished, but he always pulls his weight in terms of sheer subject-matter knowledge. In this case, he draws out a complex genealogy of occult-informed and occult-adjacent political thought -- a chain of influence from the gnostics to the rosicrucians to Evola to Left Behind -- and illuminates the various ways certain ideas twisted over …

Subjects

  • Occultism
  • Political science
  • Civilization -- History