On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left: Difference between revisions
Author's qualifications and the fact that they are writing about groups they belonged to (or led!) is directly relevent. More than that, it's necessary disclosure rather than minor bio detail |
rv anon ip. Please add this useful info to the articles on the authors themselves, not here. Thanks. |
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'''''On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left''''' is a [[non-fiction]] book about [[political cult]]s, written by [[Dennis Tourish]] and [[Tim Wohlforth]]. |
'''''On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left''''' is a [[non-fiction]] book about [[political cult]]s, written by [[Dennis Tourish]] and [[Tim Wohlforth]]. |
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==Authors== |
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Tourish is a professor of business management at Aberdeen Business School[http://www.rgu.ac.uk/abs/staff/page.cfm?pge=10643] and was briefly a member of the Irish wing of [[Militant Tendency]] in the 1980s.[http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages//Back/Wnext17/Reviews.html] Wohlforth is an author of detective fiction[http://www.timwohlforth.com/] and was the leader of the US Trotskyist group, the [[Workers League (US)|Workers League]] in the 1960s and 1970s.[http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/////////Newint/Wohlforth.html] |
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==Main points== |
==Main points== |
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''On the Edge'' discusses the role of cults and political cults in politics, as well as describing some of the history involving individuals [[Lyndon LaRouche]], and [[Fred Newman]]. Other individuals and groups discussed include [[Marlene Dixon]], the [[Christian Identity movement]], [[Posse Commitatus]], [[Scientology]], [[Synanon]], and [[Aryan Nation]]<ref>[http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/resultsa.asp?Title=On+the+Edge%3A+Political+Cults+Right+and+Left Official site], M.E. Sharpe, ISBN 978-0-7656-0639-6 , retrieved 3/21/07.</ref>. Additionally, the book discusses actions of [[Trotskyist]] groups in the [[United Kingdom]] |
''On the Edge'' discusses the role of cults and political cults in politics, as well as describing some of the history involving individuals [[Lyndon LaRouche]], and [[Fred Newman]]. Other individuals and groups discussed include [[Ted Grant]], [[Marlene Dixon]], the [[Christian Identity movement]], [[Posse Commitatus]], [[Scientology]], [[Synanon]], and [[Aryan Nation]]<ref>[http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/resultsa.asp?Title=On+the+Edge%3A+Political+Cults+Right+and+Left Official site], M.E. Sharpe, ISBN 978-0-7656-0639-6 , retrieved 3/21/07.</ref>. Additionally, the book discusses actions of [[Trotskyist]] groups in the [[United Kingdom]]. |
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==Cited by other works== |
==Cited by other works== |
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The book is cited by [[Janja Lalich]]'s book, ''Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships''<ref>[[Janja Lalich]], ''[[Take Back Your Life (book)]]'', ISBN 0972002154 , ISBN 978-0972002158 , [[May 30]], [[2006]].</ref>, as well as Tourish's ''Key Issues in Organizational Communication''<ref>{{cite book |
The book is cited by [[Janja Lalich]]'s book, ''Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships''<ref>[[Janja Lalich]], ''[[Take Back Your Life (book)]]'', ISBN 0972002154 , ISBN 978-0972002158 , [[May 30]], [[2006]].</ref>, as well as Tourish's ''Key Issues in Organizational Communication''<ref>{{cite book |
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Revision as of 03:50, 23 March 2007
 Hardcover ed. | |
| Author | Dennis Tourish, Tim Wohlforth |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | cults, political cults, politics |
| Genre | non-fiction |
| Publisher | M.E. Sharpe |
Publication date | September 2000 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 246 |
| ISBN | [[Special:BookSources/ISBN+0765606399+%2C+%3Cbr+%2F%3E+ISBN+978-0765606396 |ISBN 0765606399 , ISBN 978-0765606396]] Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left is a non-fiction book about political cults, written by Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth.
Main points
On the Edge discusses the role of cults and political cults in politics, as well as describing some of the history involving individuals Lyndon LaRouche, and Fred Newman. Other individuals and groups discussed include Ted Grant, Marlene Dixon, the Christian Identity movement, Posse Commitatus, Scientology, Synanon, and Aryan Nation[1]. Additionally, the book discusses actions of Trotskyist groups in the United Kingdom.
Cited by other works
The book is cited by Janja Lalich's book, Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships[2], as well as Tourish's Key Issues in Organizational Communication[3], Saliba's Understanding New Religious Movements[4], Lalich's Bounded Choice[5], and Hargie's Skilled Interpersonal Communication[6].
On the Edge is also cited in academic articles in Human Relations[7], Leadership[8], Contemporary British History[9], and the International Journal of Project Management[10].
Reviews
In his review [11] of On the Edge, Bob Pitt, editor of the online Marxist journal WhatNext and a former member of one of the groups profiled in the book, the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP), stated that the "central purpose of the book is to mount a slanderous attack on the revolutionary left, which often goes further than anything you might read in even the most anti-socialist sections of the bourgeois press."
Pitt states that the authors "seem immune to the idea that far left sects – even the most cult-like – can occasionally play some kind of progressive role in wider society." [11]
In the same review, however, Pitt stated that in the case of one leftist group profiled in the book, his own former WRP, "there are grounds for viewing it as a type of cult. It featured a ruthlessly authoritarian internal regime presided over by an all-powerful, all-knowing leader, who maintained his position by subjecting cadres to psychological manipulation and physical and sexual abuse." Pitt also termed the Lyndon LaRouche organization an "actual cult."
In 2003, WhatNext?, still under Pitt's editorship, republished the 1998 article by Tourish from the Cultic Studies Journal which had served as the basis for the chapter of On the Edge on one of the Militant Tendency leaders Ted Grant (The Lonely Passion of Ted Grant). Pitt criticized this On the Edge chapter in his review by stating: "When it comes to the Militant Tendency, the authors’ attempt to apply the cult paradigm breaks down. A moment’s consideration would reveal that the notion of Ted Grant presiding over a regime comparable to Healy’s is laughable." [11]
The What Next? reprint [12] of Tourish included a lengthy new introduction by him defending On the Edge and stating: "Some people have objected to the term "cult", even if they agreed with the substantive points that the paper makes about the CWI's internal regime. This is unfortunate. The word cult is not a term of abuse, as this paper tries to explain. It is nothing more than a shorthand expression for a particular set of practices that have been observed in a variety of dysfunctional organisations[13]."
Nevertheless, Pitt argues that Tourish's application of the word cult "expands the definition of the term to the point where it becomes pretty well useless."[11]
External links
- Official site, Publisher, with comments from Robert Jay Lifton, Chip Berlet, and Michael D. Langone.
- Cults, Sects and the Far Left, Book review by Bob Pitt of On the Edge published in What Next? number 17, 2000.
- Ideological Intransigence, Democratic Centralism and Cultism: A Case Study by Dennis Tourish published in What Next? number 27, 2003.
References
- ^ Official site, M.E. Sharpe, ISBN 978-0-7656-0639-6 , retrieved 3/21/07.
- ^ Janja Lalich, Take Back Your Life (book), ISBN 0972002154 , ISBN 978-0972002158 , May 30, 2006.
- ^ Tourish, Dennis (2004). Key Issues in Organizational Communication. Routledge. p. 290. ISBN 0415260930.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ Saliba, John A. (2003). Understanding New Religious Movements. Rowman Altamira. p. 40. ISBN 0759103569.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Lalich, Janja. Bounded Choice. University of California
Press. p. 313. ISBN 0520231945.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help); line feed character in|publisher=at position 25 (help) - ^ Hargie, Owen (2004). Skilled Interpersonal Communication: research, theory and practice. Routledge. p. 500. ISBN 0415227194.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ "Transformational leadership, corporate cultism and the spirituality paradigm: An unholy trinity in the workplace?", Tourish, University of Aberdeen, Pinnington, University of Queensland, Human Relations, Vol. 55, No. 2, 147-172 (2002).
- ^ "Charismatic Leadership and Corporate Cultism at Enron: The Elimination of Dissent, the Promotion of Conformity and Organizational Collapse", Tourish, Vatcha, Leadership, Vol. 1, No. 4, 455-480 (2005).
- ^ "CND's Cold War", Mark Phythian, ISSN 1361-9462, Contemporary British History, Volume 15, Number 3, P. 133-156, Fall 2001.
- ^ "The impact of Puritan ideology on aspects of project management", International Journal of Project Management, Whitty, Schulz, University of Queensland, May 24, 2006.
- ^ a b c d "Cults, Sects and the Far Left" reviewed by Bob Pitt, What Next? ISSN 1479-4322 No. 17, 2000 online
- ^ "Ideological Intransigence, Democratic Centralism and Cultism: A Case Study", Dennis Tourish, What Next? ISSN 1479-4322, online
- ^ "Introduction to ‘Ideological Intransigence, Democratic Centralism and Cultism’", Dennis Tourish, What Next? ISSN 1479-4322, online.
See also
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