Guestblogger: Arthur Goldwag, author of Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies

Several months ago, I posted about a fascinating and fun new book titled "Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more," by Arthur Goldwag. It led to a fun discussion, both in the comments thread and offline, so I was delighted when Arthur accepted my invitation to guestblog for two weeks! Welcome to the asylum, Arthur! And remember folks, just because you're paranoid, don't think They're not after you. From Arthur's bio:

After attending Kenyon College and Brown University, Arthur Goldwag worked in book publishing for more than twenty years, including stints at Random House, The New York Review of Books, and Book-of-the-Month Club. He now freelances full time.

The author of The Beliefnet Guide to Kaballah (Doubleday, 2005), Isms & Ologies (Vintage, 2007), and Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies (Vintage, 2009), Arthur Goldwag is also a contributing editor at Scholastic's Storyworks magazine, where he writes stories, plays, and essays for children. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and two sons.

Arthur Goldwag's blog

• [Scary_UK]

  What a book title, not one you want to get in a game of Charades!

  Welcome Arthur

• [hohum]

  How peculiar! Having never heard your name nor seen your book before, I happened upon it at Kramerbooks on Hallowe’en night, and gave it a good flipping through… Later looked it up on Amazon, lot of naysayers there, not very favorably reviewed… But I was quite intrigued, I’ll definitely be picking it up soon!

  Anyhow, yes – welcome! Also looking forward to what you have to say here…

  • [Arthur Goldwag]

    Some of my Amazon reviewers really hate both the book and me. It’s a drag to have them camped out in front of the bookstore, so to speak, buttonholing prospective customers, but they’re entitled to their opinions and the forum that Amazon gives them. I don’t think you can write about cults, conspiracies, or secret societies without pissing someone off, no matter what your stance–and mine, as you’ll see, tends to be pretty skeptical.

    You’ll have the chance to judge me for yourself over the next two weeks.

• [kuanes]

  Welcome Mr. Goldwag.

  Bought your latest tome after reading about it here and enjoyed it thoroughly.

  Looking forward to your guestblogs.