Conspiracy theory criticism

Cover of "Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States" by Samuel F.B. Morse, 1835 edition.

A conspiracy theory is an explanatory or speculative hypothesis that suggests that two or more persons, a group, or an organization of having caused and/or covered up, through secret planning and deliberate action, an event or situation which is typically taken to be illegal or harmful.

## Conspiracy theory criticism

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“  | A note on terminology: in this essay, "conspiracy theory" and "conspiracy culture" refer to thinking about actual conspiracies; "conspiracy theory criticism" refers to second-level thinking about conspiracy theory.  | ”

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— Andrew Strombeck, Whose Conspiracy Theory?[1]

## Reading list

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* Brotherton, Rob (2015), Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories, Bloomsbury, ISBN 1472915615

* Barkun, Michael (2013), A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America (2nd ed.), University of California Press, ISBN 0520276825

* Dean, Jodi (1998), Aliens in America : conspiracy cultures from outerspace to cyberspace, Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, ISBN 0801434637

* Fenster, Mark (1999), Conspiracy Theories : Secrecy and Power in American Culture, Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, ISBN 081663243X

* Knight, Peter (2000), Conspiracy culture : American paranoia from Kennedy to the X-files, New York: Routledge, ISBN 0415189780

* Knight, Peter, ed. (2002), Conspiracy nation : the politics of paranoia in postwar America, New York: New York University Press, ISBN 0814747361

* Melley, Timothy (2000), Empire of Conspiracy : the Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America, Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, ISBN 0801486068

* O'Donnell, Patrick (2000), Latent destinies : cultural paranoia and contemporary U.S. Narrative, Durham: Duke Univ. Press, ISBN 082232587X

## Book reviews

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* Review of Mark Fenster's Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture by Bart Beatty in Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol 24, No 4 (1999)

## Resources

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* The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories (academic blog)
* google:"conspiracist+ideation"
* Unhappy people tend to become conspiracy believers (user essay)

## References

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1. ↑ Strombeck, Andrew (2005), "Whose Conspiracy Theory?", Postmodern Culture, 15 (2), doi:10.1353/pmc.2005.0015