This book investigates the origins, development, and influence of the Traditionalist movement, a radical intellectual current that emerged in the early twentieth century to critique modernity. Mark J. Sedgwick, a scholar of religious studies, utilizes extensive archival research and biographical analysis to trace how Traditionalist thinkers rejected secularism, democracy, and industrialization in favor of a return to perennial, primordial truths. The work argues that this obscure philosophical school exerted a significant, often hidden, impact on global political and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century.

Experts recognize this work as the definitive academic account of the Traditionalist movement, praised for its objective tone and meticulous documentation of an otherwise elusive subject. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which provides a rigorous framework for understanding how fringe intellectual ideas can permeate broader political discourses.