Glassman & Swatos convincingly demonstrate that current obsessions to harness charisma are in fact little more than self-interested attempts to manufacture and simulate the aura of charisma. This book is a MUST read for any academic or would-be leadership guru since it solidly grounds charisma within Weber's overall bureaucratic schema to argue that today's culture of media flacks sell only pseudocharisma. Through careful readings of Max Weber's sociology, and by reclaiming the largely ignored distinction between 'pure' charisma and routinized charisma, these authors give sloppy leadership research a much-needed black eye. As a PhD candidate doing a dissertation on charisma, I go back to this valuable resource time and again. It is scholarly, insightful and dead-on in its criticisms. You don't know what charisma is until you read this book as a companion to Weber's works! Charisma and leadership needs more two-fisted scholarship like this.