After increasing mental health difficulties, Webb committed suicide in 1980. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke has lauded him as a serious researcher of occultism: "By focusing on functional significance of occultism in political irrationalism, Webb rescued the study of Nazi occultism for the history of ideas." His major works "The Occult Underground" and "The Occult Establishment" were translated into German and published in 2009 and 2008 respectively. Trinity College established the "James Webb Prize for the History of Ideas" in his memory. John Robert Colombo, Colin Wilson, Joyce Collin-Smith: "The Occult Webb: An Appreciation of the life and Work of James Webb," (1999) Colombo & Company.