Conspiracies And Conspiracy Theories In American History

Author : Christopher R. Fee,Jeffrey B. Webb
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 668 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2019-05-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9798216065203

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Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in American History [2 volumes] by Christopher R. Fee,Jeffrey B. Webb Pdf

This up-to-date introduction to the complex world of conspiracies and conspiracy theories provides insight into why millions of people are so ready to believe the worst about our political, legal, religious, and financial institutions. Unsupported theories provide simple explanations for catastrophes that are otherwise difficult to understand, from the U.S. Civil War to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Ideas about shadowy networks that operate behind a cloak of secrecy, including real organizations like the CIA and the Mafia and imagined ones like the Illuminati, additionally provide a way for people to criticize prevailing political and economic arrangements, while for society's disadvantaged and forgotten groups, conspiracy theories make their suffering and alienation comprehensible and provide a focal point for their economic or political frustrations. These volumes detail the highly controversial and influential phenomena of conspiracies and conspiracy theories in American society. Through interpretive essays and factual accounts of various people, organizations, and ideas, the reader will gain a much greater appreciation for a set of beliefs about political scheming, covert intelligence gathering, and criminal rings that has held its grip on the minds of millions of American citizens and encouraged them to believe that the conspiracies may run deeper, and with a global reach.

Author : Christopher R. Fee
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : Conspiracy theories
ISBN : OCLC:1300462070

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Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in American History by Christopher R. Fee Pdf

Author : Christopher R. Fee,Jeffrey B. Webb
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : Conspiracy theories
ISBN : 1440858136

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Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in American History by Christopher R. Fee,Jeffrey B. Webb Pdf

"This up-to-date introduction to the complex world of conspiracies and conspiracy theories provides insight into why millions of people are so ready to believe the worst about our political, legal, religious, and financial institutions"--

Author : Christopher R. Fee,Jeffrey B. Webb
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 869 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2019-05-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9781440858116

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Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in American History [2 volumes] by Christopher R. Fee,Jeffrey B. Webb Pdf

This up-to-date introduction to the complex world of conspiracies and conspiracy theories provides insight into why millions of people are so ready to believe the worst about our political, legal, religious, and financial institutions. Unsupported theories provide simple explanations for catastrophes that are otherwise difficult to understand, from the U.S. Civil War to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Ideas about shadowy networks that operate behind a cloak of secrecy, including real organizations like the CIA and the Mafia and imagined ones like the Illuminati, additionally provide a way for people to criticize prevailing political and economic arrangements, while for society's disadvantaged and forgotten groups, conspiracy theories make their suffering and alienation comprehensible and provide a focal point for their economic or political frustrations. These volumes detail the highly controversial and influential phenomena of conspiracies and conspiracy theories in American society. Through interpretive essays and factual accounts of various people, organizations, and ideas, the reader will gain a much greater appreciation for a set of beliefs about political scheming, covert intelligence gathering, and criminal rings that has held its grip on the minds of millions of American citizens and encouraged them to believe that the conspiracies may run deeper, and with a global reach.

Author : Joseph E. Uscinski,Joseph M. Parent
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199351817

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American Conspiracy Theories by Joseph E. Uscinski,Joseph M. Parent Pdf

Conspiracies theories are some of the most striking features in the American political landscape: the Kennedy assassination, aliens at Roswell, subversion by Masons, Jews, Catholics, or communists, and modern movements like Birtherism and Trutherism. But what do we really know about conspiracy theories? Do they share general causes? Are they becoming more common? More dangerous? Who is targeted and why? Who are the conspiracy theorists? How has technology affected conspiracy theorising? This book offers the first century-long view of these issues.

Author : Peter Knight
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Conspiracies
ISBN : LCCN:2003019565

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Conspiracy Theories in American History: N-Z by Peter Knight Pdf

Author : Thomas Milan Konda
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 451 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2019-03-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226585765

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Conspiracies of Conspiracies by Thomas Milan Konda Pdf

It’s tempting to think that we live in an unprecedentedly fertile age for conspiracy theories, with seemingly each churn of the news cycle bringing fresh manifestations of large-scale paranoia. But the sad fact is that these narratives of suspicion—and the delusional psychologies that fuel them—have been a constant presence in American life for nearly as long as there’s been an America. In this sweeping book, Thomas Milan Konda traces the country’s obsession with conspiratorial thought from the early days of the republic to our own anxious moment. Conspiracies of Conspiracies details centuries of sinister speculations—from antisemitism and anti-Catholicism to UFOs and reptilian humanoids—and their often incendiary outcomes. Rather than simply rehashing the surface eccentricities of such theories, Konda draws from his unprecedented assemblage of conspiratorial writing to crack open the mindsets that lead people toward these self-sealing worlds of denial. What is distinctively American about these theories, he argues, is not simply our country’s homegrown obsession with them but their ongoing prevalence and virulence. Konda proves that conspiracy theories are no harmless sideshow. They are instead the dark and secret heart of American political history—one that is poisoning the bloodstream of an increasingly sick body politic.

Author : Peter Knight
Publisher : ABC-CLIO
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2003-12-11
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39076002443740

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Conspiracy Theories in American History by Peter Knight Pdf

The first comprehensive history of conspiracies and conspiracy theories in the United States.

Author : Peter Knight
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Conspiracies
ISBN : LCCN:2003019565

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Conspiracy Theories in American History: A-M by Peter Knight Pdf

Author : Donald T. Critchlow,John Korasick,Matthew C. Sherman
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2008-03-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9780253027832

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Political Conspiracies in America by Donald T. Critchlow,John Korasick,Matthew C. Sherman Pdf

Conspiracy theories have been a part of the American experience since colonial times. There is a rich literature on conspiracies involving, among others, Masons, Catholics, Mormons, Jews, financiers, Communists, and internationalists. Although many conspiracy theories appear irrational, an exaggerated fear of a conspiracy sometimes proves to be well founded. This anthology provides students with documents relating to some of the more important and interesting conspiracy theories in American history and politics, some based on reality, many chiefly on paranoia. It provides a fascinating look at a persistent and at times troubling aspect of democratic society.

Author : Peter Knight
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Conspiracy theories
ISBN : OCLC:976436849

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Conspiracy Theories in American History by Peter Knight Pdf

The first comprehensive history of conspiracies and conspiracy theories in the United States. A reference guide to conspiracy theory presents over 300 entries describing events and theories, analyzing the historical, intellectual, and political context of each, and offering evidence to support or refute each one.

Author : Peter Knight
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:249871903

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Conspiracy Theories in American History by Peter Knight Pdf

Author : Katharina Thalmann
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2019-03-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9780429670473

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The Stigmatization of Conspiracy Theory since the 1950s by Katharina Thalmann Pdf

Are conspiracy theories everywhere and is everyone a conspiracy theorist? This ground-breaking study challenges some of the widely shared assessments in the scholarship about a perceived mainstreaming of conspiracy theory. It claims that conspiracy theory underwent a significant shift in status in the mid-20th century and has since then become highly visible as an object of concern in public debates. Providing an in-depth analysis of academic and media discourses, Katharina Thalmann is the first scholar to systematically trace the history and process of the delegitimization of conspiracy theory. By reading a wide range of conspiracist accounts about three central events in American history from the 1950s to 1970s – the Great Red Scare, the Kennedy assassination, and the Watergate scandal – Thalmann shows that a veritable conspiracist subculture emerged in the 1970s as conspiracy theories were pushed out of the legitimate marketplace of ideas and conspiracy theory became a commodity not unlike pornography: alluring in its illegitimacy, commonsensical, and highly profitable. This will be of interest to scholars and researchers interested in American history, culture and subcultures, as well, of course, to those fascinated by conspiracies.

Author : Barry Coward,Julian Swann
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781351949491

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Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theory in Early Modern Europe by Barry Coward,Julian Swann Pdf

For many generations, Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder plot, the 'Man in the Iron Mask' and the 'Devils of Loudun' have offered some of the most compelling images of the early modern period. Conspiracies, real or imagined, were an essential feature of early modern life, offering a seemingly rational and convincing explanation for patterns of political and social behaviour. This volume examines conspiracies and conspiracy theory from a broad historical and interdisciplinary perspective, by combining the theoretical approach of the history of ideas with specific examples from the period. Each contribution addresses a number of common themes, such as the popularity of conspiracy theory as a mode of explanation through a series of original case studies. Individual chapters examine, for example, why witches, religious minorities and other groups were perceived in conspiratorial terms, and how far, if at all, these attitudes were challenged or redefined by the Enlightenment. Cultural influences on conspiracy theory are also discussed, particularly in those chapters dealing with the relationship between literature and politics. As prevailing notions of royal sovereignty equated open opposition with treason, almost any political activity had to be clandestine in nature, and conspiracy theory was central to interpretations of early modern politics. Factions and cabals abounded in European courts as a result, and their actions were frequently interpreted in conspiratorial terms. By the late eighteenth century it seemed as if this had begun to change, and in Britain in particular the notion of a 'loyal opposition' had begun to take shape. Yet the outbreak of the French Revolution was frequently explained in conspiratorial terms, and subsequently European rulers and their subjects remained obsessed with conspiracies both real and imagined. This volume helps us to understand why.

Author : David Aaronovitch
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 397 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2010-02-04
Category : History
ISBN : 9781101185216

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Voodoo Histories by David Aaronovitch Pdf

"Meticulous in its research, forensic in its reasoning, robust in its argument, and often hilarious in its debunking... a highly entertaining rumble with the century's major conspiracy theorists and their theories." --John Lahr, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Tennessee Williams From an award-winning journalist, a history so funny, so true, so scary, it's bound to be called a conspiracy. Our age is obsessed by the idea of conspiracy. We see it everywhere- from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, from the assassination of Kennedy to the death of Diana. In this age of terrorism we live in, the role of conspiracy is a serious one, one that can fuel radical or fringe elements to violence. For David Aaronovitch, there came a time when he started to see a pattern among these inflammatory theories. these theories used similarly murky methods with which to insinu­ate their claims: they linked themselves to the supposed conspiracies of the past (it happened then so it can happen now); they carefully manipulated their evidence to hide its holes; they relied on the authority of dubious aca­demic sources. Most important, they elevated their believers to membership of an elite- a group of people able to see beyond lies to a higher reality. But why believe something that entails stretching the bounds of probabil­ity so far? In this entertaining and enlightening book, he examines why people believe conspiracy theories, and makes an argument for a true skepticism: one based on a thorough knowledge of history and a strong dose of common sense.