Product Details
Simon & Schuster, December 2002
Trade Paperback, 336 pages
ISBN-10: 0743233212
ISBN-13: 9780743233217
Description
A wide variety of extremist groups -- Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis -- share the oddly similar belief that a tiny shadowy elite rule the world from a secret room. In Them, journalist Jon Ronson has joined the extremists to track down the fabled secret room.
As a journalist and a Jew, Ronson was often considered one of "Them" but he had no idea if their meetings actually took place. Was he just not invited? Them takes us across three continents and into the secret room. Along the way he meets Omar Bakri Mohammed, considered one of the most dangerous men in Great Britain, PR-savvy Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard Thom Robb, and the survivors of Ruby Ridge. He is chased by men in dark glasses and unmasked as a Jew in the middle of a Jihad training camp. In the forests of northern California he even witnesses CEOs and leading politicians -- like Dick Cheney and George Bush -- undertake a bizarre owl ritual.
Ronson's investigations, by turns creepy and comical, reveal some alarming things about the looking-glass world of "us" and "them." Them is a deep and fascinating look at the lives and minds of extremists. Are the extremists onto something? Or is Jon Ronson becoming one of them?
Jonathan YardleyThe Washington PostUnlikely though it certainly will seem to most readers at this difficult hour...Jon Ronson has managed to write a hugely amusing book about the lunatic fringe.
Ron RosenbaumThe New York Times Book ReviewOften entertaining, more often disturbing...[Ronson] has gotten closer to these people than any journalist I can think of.
The Boston GlobeA tremendous and discomfiting achievement.
EsquireA remarkable book.
The NationI've never read such a delightful book on such a serious and important topic.
The San Diego Union-TribuneIt takes a funny man to see the humor in all the conspiracy theories that float hatefully across the land, and Jon Ronson is a funny man. It takes a brave man to chase that humor right into the belly of the beast, and Jon Ronson is a brave man too.
In The News.co.uk, October 15, 2009
...admitted he's 'generally in a state of constant anxiety'. But with a film of his second book Them in development with Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz) and Mike White (School of Rock) and his gonzo memoir about the US military receiving a warm ...
Los Angeles Chronicle, September 1, 2009
...org) -- 'The man who reactivated me is... ' Uri paused, then he said, 'called Ron.' I was reading Jon Ronson's book, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS. Ronson wrote, 'Was Ron FBI? CIA? Military intelligence? Homeland security? Could Ron be MI5? ...
Sky Arts, March 25, 2009
...Award-winning journalist and author Jon Ronson was born in 1967 in Cardiff and went on to study journalism at the Polytechnic of Central London. He went on to write a column for Time Out magazine ...
Jon Ronson's Books
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The Men Who Stare at GoatsThis New York Times bestseller is a disturbing look at the U.S. military's long flirtation with the paranormal.Read More
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