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| Them: Adventures with Extremists | 
 enlarge | Author: Jon Ronson
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: £16.00
Buy Used: £0.02
You Save: £15.98 (100%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 342297
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 352
ISBN: 0330375458
EAN: 9780330375450
ASIN: 0330375458
Publication Date: April 6, 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Journalist and broadcaster Jon Ronson's first book Them: Adventures With Extremists is a mostly hilarious, occasionally chastening romp through the shadowy world of paranoid conspiracists. It proves a neat conceit. Ronson, a consummate faux-naif, inevitably treads similar ground to Louis Theroux, though perhaps with a lighter, more disingenuous patter, which sustains him in encounters that veer from the extraordinary to the mundane at dizzying pace, and blur the space between. He meets Omar, the infuriatingly likeable Islamic fundamentalist organising a jihad from a North London semi, despite a more real struggle with the reprographic world, and PR-conscious Klu Klux Klan leader, Thom Robb, who unaccountably has Jewish mannerisms. Others who allow Ronson to share a window in the life, and possibly into their soul, include David Icke, still believing that the world's ruling elite are descended from reptiles (no, really), Dr Ian Paisley, and Tony Kaye, a Hollywood director, determined to sabotage his own movie, American History X, rather than see it publicly released without his approval. These are easy pickings, but Ronson picks them with unobtrusive and gentle irony. His main mission, though, is to track down the Bilderberg Group, who reputedly comprise the world's leading figures, and who, it is believed by the likes of Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and "Soho Bomber" David Copeland, want to enforce global capitalism. As if. However, the alleged sighting of Peter Mandelson, attending a Bilderberg gathering, surely portends more for the British reader. Ronson's escapades--"I am a humorous journalist out of my depth", he informs the British Embassy in Portugal when his car is tailed--uncovers more truth than one would expect, though none greater than the depressing but crushingly realistic notion that even the most powerful public figures are, at play, little more than preppies or undergraduates, who enjoy worshipping owl effigies, wearing false breasts and urinating in public. Luckily, Ronson tires of the corkscrewing paranoia and subterfuge before the reader, leaving a rich impression of a world affirmingly varied and absurd, if endearingly familiar. But, having attended a Bilderberg meeting, perhaps he would, wouldn't he?--David Vincent
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 Entertaining - better than the TV series September 26, 2008
Reading this book is a bit like having the TV series on DVD; there's a lot more extras, and the commentary is a lot more in-depth.
This book is all about Jon Ronson (a cross between Woody Allen and Louie Theroux) and his travails as he interviews the world's leading conspiracy theorists. Like Louie Theroux he tends to sit back, play innocent and let his subjects talk themselves into a position of absurdity, but in the book we get more of a chance to read what it would be like to be in the company of these people.
It's amusing, and it's interesting to see how the underlying atmosphere of paranoia starts to get Ronson considering the possibility of even the more absurd thoeries going round.
I do feel that there is a growing streak of journalism in Britain that seeks to make their interviewer's reputations by taking advantage of the vulnerability of their subjects. Louie Theroux does this to some extent and so has Martin Bashir. I feel that there's an element of this here, but there is a real 'scoop' in this book - to get into the Bilderberg meeting was an exceptional achievement, and worth reading the book for on it's own.
The KKK Grand Wizard who was trying to become a moderate was very entertaining too!
a little disorganised, but entertaining and insightful August 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I enjoyed this book. On the negative side, it is a little unstructured and hops around - the chronology is messy. That said, it is amusingly written, Ronson does a good job of maintaining some sang froid in the face of some more hot-blooded company, such as Alex Jones and Jim Tucker, and in the face of the madness of David Icke.
There is some insight into the world of the Bilderberg Group, and their nutty owl ceremonies. Ronson concludes with a view that I share - conspiracy theories are a new secular religion, a faith. It is interesting how many of the leading conspiracy theorists are already heavily God-fearing individuals. I'd have thought that on its own would have undermined their credibility, but clearly the conspiracy theory fanboys are happy to overlook the idea of these guys praying to some higher force for salvation from the Illuminati. The irony of that certainly isn't wasted on me!
Ronson does a good job of highlighting Alex Jones's bully-boy tactics, his loathing of David Icke (stealing Alex's limelight, it would appear) and interviews with David Icke suggest that 12 foot lizards isn't some code for the Global Elite, he really does believe they can mutate into 12 foot lizards....
Ronson concludes the book with the analysis that it is more frightening for conspiracy theorists to believe that the world is actually spiraling towards some unknown destiny than it is to believe that some-uber powerful group of Jews, 12 foot lizards, investment bankers or whoever are actually pulling the strings and determining our future. A good insight into the weakness of the human condition and our need to find and explanation for every single event, however unplanned or random.
 Comic book, no investigative journalism here. April 2, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is an amusing book. Thats it.
It makes Louis Therioux look like an indepth investigative journalist. At least Louis finds an insight into the characters.
Only the last few chapters offer anything interesting and thats just a peak into a redundant clique of wannabes and an interview with Edward Heath.
The author seems more interested in his own secular upbringing than the characters he meets.
For a 'so called' Cardiff boy we expect better.
 Not bad, but lacks direction March 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It starts off with Jon himself hanging around with the jihad extremist Omar Bakri. This is an interesting start but I found Ronson's style a little slow but I laughed out loud a few times. The two most interesting parts of the book were the Bilderberg chapter and the lizard one with David Icke.
Where Ronson went wrong was to write chapters in the book that seemed irrelevent and which split the narrative structure up. The chapter about Dr Paisley was really awful and at this point I debated on putting the book down.
the Ku Klux Clan chapter was pretty good but it was off the mark from who's governing the world? What the book lacked was direction. Jon should've set a goal to find out how the world works, not - how stupid can people get?
By looking at the lives and minds of so many paranoid individuals you see how loony the world sometimes is. However, I got the impression that Jon Ronson wasn't trying to uncover any kind of global conspiracy or find the business cats that are maybe controlling the world. He was just trying to find interesting people to write about and maybe poke a bit of fun at.
The book is kind of uneven and I would've liked to have read more about the Bilderberg group and the surrounding elite groups of the so called Illuminati conspiracy. Maybe he could've talked to some Free Mason's and some of the members of CFR and the Trillateral commission.
Jon Ronson looks at global conspiracies, with some very surprising results June 18, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jon Ronson's "Them" might be described as doing for extremist politicians what Louis Theroux has done to various celebrities. By adopting a harmless, understanding, intelligent and sympathetic persona, Ronson manages to position himself in the confidence of a fascinating selection of 'radicals'- from two different Ku Klux Klan leaders to David Icke- and shows his audience their caring, human, normal life, as well as exposing the true extents of their 'unusual' points of view.
No matter how ridiculous they or the things they say may appear to be, Ronson never ever laughs at them, either to their face or to the audience. At no point does he imply, "ha ha, look at this nutter", leaving that to the audience's discretion. Ronson's partiality, where he manages to be *everybody's* friend, becomes part of the story itself, especially when it lands him in some serious danger.
The book reads more like a travelogue than an analysis. A succession of phone calls and chance meetings has Ronson wandering around the globe in unexpected company. The tone of the book is light and enjoyable, making it all the stronger.
When I first ordered this book on a recommendation I slightly misunderstood the title "Them: Adventures With Extremists". The 'Them' in question is not the extremists that Ronson meets, as I thought. The 'Them' in question are the mysterious behind-the-scenes people that supposedly run the world. Most of the people Ronson meets believe that such a conspiratorial group exists, although they differ in their opinions of who they are- the Bilderberg group, Jews, a 'ZOG', alien lizards... And somehow by the end of the book Ronson has, arguably, *met* 'Them'. It's an incredible feat of a dedicated journalist, and the resulting book is a very good read.
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