Martha F. Lee

Conspiracy Rising (eBook, ePUB)

Conspiracy Thinking and American Public Life

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

This book offers a thoughtful analysis of how and why conspiracy thinking has become a popular mode of political discourse in the United States.

How did conspiracy thinking become such a significant and surprisingly widely accepted form of political thinking in the United States? What compels people to respond to devastating, unpredictable events-terrorist acts, wars, natural disasters, economic upheavals-with the conviction that nothing is a coincidence, nothing is as it seems, and everything is connected?

Conspiracy Rising: Conspiracy Thinking and American Public Life argues that while outlandish paranoid theories themselves may seem nonsensical, the thread of conspiracy thinking throughout American history is a both a byproduct of our democratic form of government and a very real threat to it. From the Illuminati, the Knights Templar, and the Freemasons to the government hiding aliens and faking the moon landing; from the New World Order to the Obama "Birthers," the book explores the enduring popularity of a number of American conspiracy theories, showing how the conspiracy hysteria that may provoke disdain and apathy in the general public, can become a source of dangerous extremism.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 184
• Altersempfehlung: ab 7 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 13. Juni 2011
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9798216065210
• Artikelnr.: 70037510

Autorenporträt

Martha F. Lee is professor of political science at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Her published works include The Nation of Islam: An American Millenarian Movement. She is also the editor of Millennial Visions: Essays on Twentieth-Century Millenarianism, published by Praeger in 2000.