Clarifying the concept of political charisma -- Core characteristics -- Dispelling some common confusions -- Political charisma: virtuous or wicked? -- Contemporary charisma: real or counterfeit? -- Charisma: personality or perceptions? -- Charisma as leadership and/or authority -- Identifying charismatic political leaders -- The leader as god or savior -- The leader as seer or magician -- He says unto us -- Indicators of emotional commitment -- Evidence and interpretation -- Charismatics and probable charismatics -- Consort charisma and the passionate charismatic -- Marginals and misnomers -- Political charisma: contexts and catalysts -- Social crisis and psychic distress -- Psychological susceptibility -- Doctrine, message, or mission -- The leader as catalyst -- Charismatic legitimation: the invocation of myth -- Sukarno as mythic warrior and semidivine lover -- Castro as the apostle returned -- Sukarno as universal monarch -- The Ayatollah Khomeini and the once and future Imam -- Charismatic conversion: heroes, saviors, and miracles -- Hitler as hero of the Rhine -- Mussolini as defiant restorer of honor -- Roosevelt as savior from fear and want -- Gandhi and the conquest of self and other -- Charismatic legitimation: the prodigies of person -- Sukarno and sexuality -- Gandhi and abstinence -- Some attributes in awesome measure -- The rhetoric of charismatic invocation -- Roosevelt and the great tradition -- The folk tradition -- Landon and Roosevelt: the plain phrase versus the founding myth -- Willkie and Roosevelt: the boardroom versus the arena of history -- Political strategies in aid of charisma -- Invocation of the glorious past -- The Demigod steps down -- The eclat of innovation -- The suspense tactic -- Organizational overlap and competition -- The impact and legacy of political charisma -- Charisma and the road to power -- Charisma and the consolidation of power -- Charisma in aid of purpose and policy -- The limits of political charisma -- The legacy of political charisma -- Appendix: Weber and charisma as concept and theory.