Cults Like Us explores America’s rich history with and natural proclivity for cults and cult-like groups. Since its very founding, this country had used cult ideology to gain and maintain control. By looking at the cults that came before, this book helps us examine the many ways these methods are still used and how we so easily fall prey to them.
I was casually meandering aimlessly around the bookstore, something I probably shouldn’t be allowed to do, when I came across Cults Like Us. I love true-crime stories. Particularly ones about cults. Seeing this on the shelf at the store resulted in an automatic purchase. I hadn’t read any nonfiction in a while, and this seemed interesting. The concept that we are primed from the baked-in culture of our nation to be susceptible to cults and cult-like thinking is both fascinating and terrifying.
Using dissections of both religious and secular cults, Borden takes us through the methods they use and the damage they do when controlling what and how people think. She talks about everything from the Puritans to Q-Anon and so much in between. There was a ton of new information and insights I’d never considered. There were several cults I’d never even heard of before picking up this book.
The most interesting insights were in the much more subtle ways that things like advertisements and, even more so, social media leverage the same techniques when attracting and keeping an audience. No one is shielded from the risk of falling prey to these tactics. We need to be aware of them, especially when they are coming from trusted figures, regardless of whether they come from a religious leader, political powerhouse, or your favorite influencer.
An “engrossing, unputdownable” (Amanda Montell, New York Times bestselling author) pop history that explains why the eccentric doomsday beliefs of our Puritan founders are still driving American culture today, contextualizes the current rise in far-right extremism as a natural result of our latent indoctrination, and proposes that the United States is the largest cult of all.
Since the Mayflower sidled up to Plymouth Rock, cult ideology has been ingrained in the DNA of the United States. In this eye-opening book, journalist Jane Borden argues that Puritan doomsday belief never went away; it went secular and became American culture. From our fascination with cowboys and superheroes to our allegiance to influencers and self-help, susceptibility to advertising, and undying devotion to the self-made man, Americans remain particularly vulnerable to a specific brand of cult-like thinking.
With in-depth research and compelling insight, Borden uncovers the American history you didn’t learn in school, including how we are still being brainwashed, making us a nation of easy marks for con artists and strong men. Along the way, she also revisits some of the most fascinating cults in this country—including, the Mankind United and Love Has Won—presenting them as integral parts of our national psyche rather than aberrations.
Donna is an author and engineer with 15 years of IT experience and a lifetime love of literature and cinema, especially horror. She has written a paranormal Holiday novel, What Creatures Are Stirring. She holds and Electrical Engineering Degree from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Western Governor’s University. Donna is passionate about reading and the importance of access to books. She loves writing about her favorite books and movies and sharing it with her readers.
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