Conspiracy: The Power of the Paranoid Style in History

In this brilliant and provocative work, Daniel Pipes offers a fascinating analysis of conspiracy theories in the West and the terrible impact they have had. He shows how, beginning with the Crusades, Europe developed two strands of conspiracism. One took the form of secret societies from the Knights Templar through the Freemasons to the Council on Foreign Relations. A second insisted that "international Jewry" runs the world. Pipes delineates the fear that one or the other of these agents engineered the French and Russian revolutions, two world wars, and all other key events of modern history. He shows the staggering consequences of conspiracy theories in the era when Hitler and Stalin reached power and then, in the aftermath of 1945, the migration of this way of thinking from the halls of power in the West to the political and geographic margins. To anyone who has ever heard a friend or relative say, "Don't believe what you read in the papers, " Conspiracy offers a spellbinding survey - and a wakeup call. Was Aids Intentionally Inflicted Upon Blacks By Whites? Was Jfk Assassinated As Part Of An Intricate Conspiracy? Daniel Pipes Traces Conspiracy Theories Through History And Convincingly Shows How They Have Been Used As Common Tools Of Mass Manipulation In The West And Have More Recently Cropped Up In The Third World And Among Disempowered Fringe Groups. 1. Conspiracy Theories Everywhere -- 2. A House Of Mirrors -- 3. Unmasking The Conspiracy Theory -- 4. The Origins, To 1815 -- 5. Florescence, 1815-1945 -- 6. Migration To The Periphery, Since 1945 -- 7. Two Conspiracist Traditions -- 8. Right-wing Nuts, Leftist Sophisticates -- 9. Conspiracism's Costs -- App. A. Benign Antisemitism -- App. B. Stalin's Blind Spot -- App. C. The Internet. Daniel Pipes. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [203]-236) And Index. "A solid sketch of a difficult and intriguing topic without indulging in sensationalism" ( Kirkus Reviews , August 15, 1997). 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 Presents a history and analysis of conspiracy theories in the West and explores their impact on world events Conspiracy theories-fears of nonexistent conspiracies-are flourishing in the United States.