Conspiracy How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It Comes From

by Pipes, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9780684871110
• ISBN10: 0684871114
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781439124048
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-05-01
• Publisher: Touchstone

Summary

Was AIDS intentionally inflicted upon blacks by whites? Was JFK assassinated as part of an intricate conspiracy? Pipes traces conspiracy theories through history to show that "Conspiracism"—genuine and virulent belief in a conspiracy—dates back to the First Crusade and reached a peak in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, with the focus shifting from the Jews, groups such as Freemasons and the Rosicrucians, and back again.
—DanielPipes.org

Author Biography

Daniel Pipes is an American historian, writer, and commentator. He is the president of the Middle East Forum, and publisher of its Middle East Quarterly journal. His writing focuses on American foreign policy and the Middle East.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Conspiracy Theories Everywhere	1	(19)
A House of Mirrors	20	(17)
Unmasking the Conspiracy Theory	37	(15)
The Origins, to 1815	52	(24)
Florescence, 1815-1945	76	(30)
Migration to the Periphery, Since 1945	106	(23)
Two Conspiracist Traditions	129	(25)
Right-Wing Nuts, Leftist Sophisticates	154	(17)
Conspiracism's Costs	171	(15)
Appendix A: Benign Antisemitism	186	(6)
Appendix B: Stalin's Blind Spot	192	(7)
Appendix C: The Internet	199	(4)
Notes	203	(34)
Index	237