However, the study of law and illiberalism is a relatively recent undertaking, a project that takes on urgency in light of the rise of authoritarian powers, among them Donald Trump’s administration, Viktor Orban’s Hungary, Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, and Jair Bolsanoro’s Brazil. This book is not about proving or debunking any alleged conspiracy; rather, it sets out to explain why people believe conspiracy theories in the first place, and why those who dismiss them out of hand are missing an important part of the picture.

In this short but comprehensive and illuminating study, Cohn (one of my favorite historians) offers a biography of the most notorious book ever written: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Conspiracy theories are narratives, and their narrative form provides the structure within which their ‘ . Conspiracy theories can no longer be simply dismissed as the product of a pathological mind-set located on the political margins. The Russian international media outlet Russia Today (RT) has been widely accused in the Western world of producing government propaganda and conspiracy theories. Rice’s work is concerned with the question of documentary and archival evidence, what makes a thing “true,” and how that proof moves through the world.

Meanwhile, an ‘instrumental rationale’ is apparent in discussions of the deep state conspiracy in the Turkish parliament (Türkay Salim Nefes, 392). Merlan has been on the front lines of fringe and extremist culture as a reporter for Vice, chronicling the dark underbelly of American thought—one that has, in recent years, unfortunately come to light. Issues covered include the psychology of conspiracy theories, changes in conspiratorial thinking over time, the role of the Internet, regional and political variations and the social and political impact of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy Theory in America investigates how the Founders’ hard-nosed realism about the likelihood of elite political misconduct—articulated in the Declaration of Independence—has been replaced by today’s blanket condemnation of conspiracy beliefs as ludicrous by definition. In Conspiracy, Michael Shermer presents an overarching review of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them.

Nadia Abu El-Haj, Hussein Ali Agrama, Kathleen Belew, Elizabeth Anne Davis, Joseph Dumit, Faith Hillis, Lochlann Jain, Demetra Kasimis, Susan Lepselter, Darryl Li, Louisa Lombard, Joseph Masco, Robert Meister, Timothy Melley, Rosalind C.Miller convincingly connects the accusatory conservatism of the midcentury John Birch Society to the inflammatory rhetoric of the Tea Party, the Trump administration, Q, and more. We use cookies on this site to understand how you use our content, and to give you the best browsing experience. It’s all nonsense, of course, but it powers industries and keeps the disinformation firehose going, and Robertson does a great job of showing how it works.