He spent 8 years researching the book, making contacts with the Gurdjieff community worldwide.
The New York Review of Books described Webb's research and knowledge of the subject as "extremely comprehensive",[2] and Mistlberger described the book as "scholarly and occasionally gossipy" with Webb being "unquestionably a sincere researcher" who became "deeply involved in the matter of his subject" while remaining "fundamentally an outsider, an investigative journalist".
Webb traced the influence of occult and mystical groups and writers on literature, philosophy and politics.
Trinity College established the "James Webb Prize for the History of Ideas" in his memory.
[7][8] Webb's work has been recognised as a precursor to the academic study of esotericism which would later be inaugurated as a formalised field by historians Antoine Faivre and Wouter Hanegraaff in the 1990s.