1 Introduction 2 The Cult, the Cultic Milieu and Secularization 3 Diggers, Wolfs, Ents, Elves and Expanding Universes: Global Bricolage and the Question of Violence within the Subcultures of Radical Environmentalism 4 The Historical Communal Roots of Ultraconservative Groups: Earlier American Communes That Have Shaped Today's Far Right 5 Neo-Shamanism, Psychic Phenomena, and Media Trickery: Cultic Differences in Hungary 6 The Gothic Milieu 7 Black and White Unite in Fight? On the Interaction Between Black and White Radical Racialists 8 The Idea of Purity: The Swedish Racist Counterculture, Animal Rights, and Environmental Protection 9 The Postwar Paths of Occult National Socialism: From Rockwell and Mandole to Manson 10 Thriving in a Cultic Milieu: The World Union of National Socialists, 1962-1992 11 The Modern Anti-Cult Movement in Historical Perspective 12 "Who Watches the Watchman?" Another Side to the Watchdog Groups
What do deep ecologists, neo-nazis, goths, black nationalists, and
urban shamans have in common? They are all part of a 'cultic
milieu,' an underground culture that embraces everyone, right or
left, good or bad, who thrives on standing in opposition to the
social mainstream. The articles in this book explore how and why,
as they analyze movements that have rarely been brought together
before. It's a fantastic collection, bound to blow the world of
cultic studies wide open.
*Robert Ellwood, (University of Southern California)*
This is an important and timely book that focus attention on an
increasingly significant phenomenon, that of cultural opposition
and dissent. It is gratifying to find cultic milieu theory being
revived in this context and being put to such good use to shed
light on the confusing and diverse world of radical
environmentalism, communitarianism, racism, mysticism and magic.
Kaplan and Loow are to be congratulated on producing a collection
that constitutes the first serious attempt to chart this complex
phenomenon and in so doing giving us invaluable insights into the
contemporary world of cultural deviance and resistance.
*Colin Campbell, (York University)*
This book is a provocative and useful contribution to understanding
pluralism.
*CHOICE, June 2003*
An original and valuable contribution to the sociology of
'stigmatized knowledge' . . . parts of the book will be invaluable
reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students on courses
in social movements, sociology of religion, and popular
culture.
*American Journal of Sociology*
[An] elegantly readable book. . . . I can say unequivocally . . .
that it has much to offer scholars in a variety of disciplines.
*Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review*
Enter the wilder shores of countercultural, utopian territories
where, in the words of the editor, 'proscribed and/or forbidden
knowledge is the coin of the realm;' where activities range from
the extreme left to the extreme right, from white to black, from
the radically communal to the radically individualistic, with
oppositional environmentalism and the search for purity as
recurrent themes. Important currents, often capable of posing
threats to the mainstream, are explored in depth in The Cultic
Milieu: a book which will certainly engage, and probably concern,
the reader.
*Paul Heelas, (Lancaster University)*
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