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The Authoritarian Specter

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Altemeyer is regarded by social psychologists as the world's leading authority on the psychology of political conservatism and the psychology of religious fundamentalism. He has also done the most-extensive studies in the psychology of bigotry. Altemeyer has submitted his fascinating personality-questionnaire to over 50,000 individuals, including young and old, various academic specializations, Republicans, Democrats, Christians, Jews, Moslems, religious reformists, religious fundamentalists, atheists, agnostics, professional politicians, U.S., Canada, the former Soviet Union--many categories of people. He has applied the sophisticated mathematical technique of factorial analysis to the results, so as to identify how a wide range of personality variables naturally cluster together or separate--are actually the same or different from one another. He has found that political conservatism, religious fundamentalism, and all kinds of bigotry--against Jews, gays, Blacks, women, the poor, and many other minority or other weak groups--cluster together as actually a single personality-trait, which he has thus called "Right-Wing Authoritarianism." He was amazed to find, when he submitted his questionnaires to members of the communist party in the former Soviet Union, that they too scored very high on his "RWA" scale--that the U.S.S.R.'s communists were true conservatives. However, communists in capitalist countries, interestingly, scored low on "RWA" or conservatism.

This book is a more-updated version of Altemeyer's ENEMIES OF FREEDOM, which won the Behavioral Science Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. However, it is not by any means a revised edition--it is a new work. Both books are phenomenally well-written, in a style that is both clear and engaging, and organized well. Both would probably have become national, if not international, bestsellers if only they had been promoted reasonably well, which neither was.

It is rare that the virtues of scientific professionalism and popular-appeal attractiveness are combined together. This book, like ENEMIES OF FREEDOM, is such a work. Anyone who wants to understand religious fundamentalism, political conservatism, or bigotry, cannot do better than to start with either of these two masterpieces by Altemeyer.

I'm not going to lie and say that I breezed my way through this book, the terminology/dry statistics etc were a challenge. I definitely read it though and it took me a while. His research is apparently not widely known about, and that is DEFINITELY to our society's detriment. His self-published follow-up The Authoritarians is much more neophyte-friendly and I sincerely appreciate his effort to make the research more accessible, it helped a dummy like me, It is more up-to-date (2006), and there is a VERY inexpensive PDF option (insert joke here).

Since it is a self-published book, it is not on Amazon. Hopefully some patriotic Publisher will pick it up, but I'm not holding my breath waiting, the information contain may be TOO consequential (if you understand my logic). I cannot post my glowing review of it (google it to find it), the Audio version IS on Amazon and should provide more info. The Authoritarians

(This book "The Authoritarian Specter" is 'just' jaw-dropping, but his newer book "The Authoritarians" is simply mind-blowing.)

I just started to read this book. But if the rest of the book is as entertaining as the Acknowledgments section at its beginning, I am going to love this book. Don't skip over the Acknowledgments section.