Unfortunately, a set of essays largely drawn from secondary sources. They don't really fit together, as I hoped they would.

Extremely interesting case study into so called "messiahs" in modern American history. If you're interested in any of the modern day extremist religions and the cults of personality regarding their leaders, this book is for you.

I received this book in exchange for a honest review from NetGalley.

I really loved this books despite having some differences of opinion to the author of this book. This book was an fairly academic view of various cults throughout american history. It very thoroughly traced the socialist communal messianic cult through the ages. I felt like to a degree the author picked and chose his cults that he covered to make his eventual point that our being anti-cult and capitalist has led us to ruin. I felt like in this evaluation that the author didn't cover all of the horrible things that unchecked cults have done over time (children of god, moonies, and more). In this narrow view it is possible to make the argument that some "cults" or communist messianic traditions were indeed very helpful to leftist causes (abolition, suffrage, civil rights and more) but I think that is far to narrow a view because too many end up dangerous. Overall I liked the book it was well written and had a lot of interesting things to say and would be a interesting read for anyone interested in cults and religion.

This book started out well enough but bogged down for me in some parts. Perhaps these sections might well have been separate books. That being said, American Messiahs is a well-researched look at a long history of mesmerizing spiritual leaders who both inspired and duped their followers.