Rating: 
Summary: ¿The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.¿
Review: Kimberly Blaker offers us a chance to get up to speed with the disturbing realities of individuals who use their idea of Christian values as a wolf uses sheep's clothing to disguise the predatory motivation and actions for power, control, and ultimately domination of our society. With a wonderful selection of authors (including herself) she provides a thorough study of the subject from historical to present day, theological to psychological, and sociological to political. Her book gives the reader an opportunity to fully grasp the very real dangers of these activist groups to our democratic society. She effectively connects the dots of the Christian Right's agenda for power and the breaking down of the separation between church and state. In a time of increasing political erosion to this sacred tenet of a free society, we would do well to inform ourselves and become proactively involved.
Rating: 
Summary: Badly written, badly edited, and utterly lacking in depth
Review: My boyfriend gave me this book for Christmas, as I've been researching modern conservative Christianity in America. Before this book, I'd mostly been researching via primary sources; reading books written by conservative Christians for conservative Christians and drawing conclusions about their worldview by absorbing the tone and reading between the lines. My boyfriend thought it would benefit my research to read a more academic book on the subject. And it certainly would. Unfortunately, this is not that book.
The first thing I noticed about "The Fundamentals of Extremism" was that its table of contents, acknowledgments, and several chapters were printed on the left-hand page. This is simply not done in professional publishing. Every self-publishing guide I've ever read warned against this, for fear of revealing your status as an amateur publisher. On top of that, the cover graphics were cheap, the inner design boring, and the typos and grammatical errors rampant. One contributing author, Bobbie Kirkhart, seems to have a vendetta against the word "that." This makes reading her essay extremely confusing; I often had to read a sentence again and again to make sense of it.
The quality of the writing isn't much better. One author attempts to differentiate fundamentalists from conservative evangelicals, who are more prevalent in America and considerably less extreme. But that makes no difference to the other authors, who have a tendency to state their opinion before fully explaining what exactly is going on. This book offers no background on how fundamentalism developed - in this country or any other - nor does it adequately explain what defines a fundamentalist or how many there are.
Being a green anarchist, I tend towards the liberal end of the spectrum where social issues are concerned. However, even I rolled my eyes at the knee-jerk liberalism in this book. Not for the extremism of the beliefs stated; only a radical conservative would claim that these ideas were in any way radical. (Remember, this is an anarchist talking.) I'm mainly disappointed that the authors never stray from the Democratic party line. Barely any original argument or theory is put forth. The closed-mindedness reminds me of writers such as Sean Hannity. These recycled opinions are then backed up only weakly; I get the impression that the authors have a very limited knowledge of what actually makes fundamentalists tick, or the many levels of complexity in the social issues discussed.
Richard Dawkins, a man I greatly admire, mooned over "The Fundamentals of Extremism" on the back cover. He was apparently "stunned and horrified" by its contents. I'm disappointed and somewhat disillusioned that such a learned man could know so little about what's going on in this country. Nothing in this book is new information to me. Of course they oppose legalized abortion; of course they oppose women's rights; of course they hate public school for its supposed secular teachings. This is only shocking to someone who hasn't picked up a newspaper in years.
If you already have a general knowledge of Christian fundamentalism, don't bother with this book. If you know little to nothing about Christian fundamentalism, don't learn about it from this book. It will just make you angry and impair your ability to empathize with people who think differently from you. For the record, it is possible for a certain way of thinking to be a threat to humanity without its adherents being evil or stupid. Though "The Fundamentals of Extremism" claims not to champion this viewpoint, the hateful tone can be found in the same place I found the hidden hatred in slick fundamentalist propaganda: between the lines.
Rating:
Summary: The Fundamentals of Extremism
Review: Talk about your extremists! This book, a compilation of multiple authors, is left wing extremism to the ninth degree. You can not get more liberal ideology than this. Everyone from Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to Dr. James Dobson (Focus On The Family) is referred to as "a right wing radical". The formers crime no doubt is his support for Israel. The latter is guilty, of all things, being pro-family. His family values message is actually compared to Taliban-like mind control of children. One gets the impression that there is not a Republican and/or Conservative alive that could avoid the right wing label from these authors. If you are a person with a moderate philosophy, this book will be a complete turn-off.
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Summary: Learn about the Religious Right's REAL Political Agenda
Review: The collected essays in The Fundamentals of Extremism offer a much-needed update of the revolutionary political agenda that is being promoted and heavily funded by the American religious right. Editors Blaker, et al use these extremists' own words to exemplify the extent to which right-wing Christian politicians, ministers, pundits, and social engineers will go to attract like-minded absolutists who are bent on controlling the hearts and minds of not only other Christians, but ALL Americans. While the previous 9 of 10 reviewers have adequately described and rated this book, I must point out that the latest review is an accurate illustration of the mindset explained by the authors of The Fundamentals of Extremism: reactionary, single-minded, and utterly unwilling to accept opposing viewpoints. If this book displays "extremism" of any type, it is the extreme fairness of Blaker's objective criticism, in which she and her co-contributors continually point out that not all fundamentalists are not extremists. The Fundamentals of Extremism does focus, however, on the true extremists of the Christian Right and their theocratic agenda, which is without a doubt, UN-American. But naturally, the reactionary types who write trashing reviews of books they haven't read would not know this.
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Summary: How the Religious Right is Talibanizing America
Review: The Fundamentals of Extremism chronicles in minute detail the Talibanization of America. It exposes both the high profile theofascists whom even moderate religionists recognize as a threat to their freedom to practise the belief system of their choice, and the behind-the-scenes theofascists who pull the visible fanatics' puppet strings. Blaker's delineation of the Bush administration's conspiracy to abolish education in America and replace it with theofascist indoctrination is frightening, and should be required reading for anyone who disputes that the Christian Taliban is intentionally doing to America what Torquemada did to Spain. While the Land of the Free is not dead yet, it is being systematically strangled. Anyone who does not know that has not read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth the Money
Review: The message is outstanding for anyone interested in the grasp the conservative right has on our personal liberties. The information presented should be a wake-up call to anyone concerned about the future of our political landscape. The one criticism to this book is the redundancy in the information. The same message about reproductive rights is outlined in various readings. It would be helpful if a future edition is made to provide a better flow of information.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Read, Well Resourced Book
Review: The recent events in Alabama regarding Judge Moore's placing of the 10 commandments in the state court house provide affirmation for the concerns expressed in this book. Fundamentalists, regardless of religion, all share a black or white, good or bad world viewpoint. There can be no toleration of other viewpoints.
Jesus said in Matthew 12:30 "He that is not with me is against me" which implies that indifference to his position is the same as active opposition to it. The Christian fundamentalists have taken this philosophy to heart.
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Summary: Everyone needs to understand the dangers of fundamentalism
Review: This book is wonderful at revealing the evils of religious fundmentalists. It should be read by everyone including the religous. It is very dense in information; with 900 references, it reads almost like a college textbook and cannot be dismissed as simply a collection of anti-religious opinions. Be prepared to read a paragraph or a couple and have to put it down and think for a while.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome, but not for the layman.
Review: This book taps into the possible threat of the ultra-religious, espescially here in America. Although it'd take several years or even decades for them to suceed, the idea is just as horrifying. Most of this is political, but it can almost be rated as a 'conspiracy theory'. To the experienced political or extremist nonbeliever (mostly non-christian), this would be a great book; to the layman, a little too far.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome, but not for the layman.
Review: This book taps into the possible threat of the ultra-religious, espescially here in America. Although it'd take several years or even decades for them to suceed, the idea is just as horrifying. Most of this is political, but it can almost be rated as a 'conspiracy theory'. To the experienced political or extremist nonbeliever (mostly non-christian), this would be a great book; to the layman, a little too far.
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