John George

John Herbert George (February 7, 1936 – November 21, 2008) was an American political scientist and author. He was a professor of political science and sociology at the University of Central Oklahoma until his retirement in 2000. George received a masters degree in geology from the University of Oklahoma, and worked as a petroleum engineer for several years, only to resign from this job and return to the same institution to study political science. He received a masters degree and PhD in political science. Some of his work focuses were extremism and terrorism.

In 1989, he coauthored a book with Paul F. Boiler Jr. on false quotations, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions. He also coauthored 2 books with extremism researcher Laird Wilcox: Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe in 1992, which focused on American political extremism, and Be Reasonable, another book on quotes, in 1994.

Early life and education John Herbert George was born February 7, 1936, in Holdenville, Oklahoma. He was raised in a Baptist family. He worked as a petroleum engineer for five years at the companies Conoco and Skelly Oil, before resigning from this job and shifting to work in political science. His masters thesis was on extremist groups. joining the UCO faculty in 1968. In 2001, he was featured on a C-SPAN panel as one of two terrorism experts. He retired from UCO in 2000. He moved with his wife to California for his retirement. The book aims to expose and discuss misleading, misquoted, and hoax quotations, with a particular focus on quotations fabricated in service of a political cause.

He then coauthored Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe with extremism researcher Laird Wilcox in 1992, published by Prometheus Books. They discuss the varieties of American extremism and give a theoretical overview of extremism. An appendix also contains a section on falsified quotes.

In 1994, Wilcox and George authored a second book together, again published by Prometheus Books: Be Reasonable: Selected Quotations for Inquiring Minds. This collects quotes related to freedom of expression and skepticism.

Personal life and death George described his primary ideology as "anti-authoritarian"

He was married to Treva George. She was a professor of Spanish and psychology at Rose State College.

George died from cancer in Carlsbad, California on November 21, 2008.