How the new conspiracists are undermining democracy-and what can be done about it Conspiracy theories are as old as politics. But conspiracists today have introduced something new-conspiracy without theory. And the new conspiracism has moved from the fringes to the heart of government with the election of Donald Trump. In A Lot of People Are Saying, Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum show how the new conspiracism differs from classic conspiracy theory, why so few officials speak truth to conspiracy, and what needs to be done to resist it. Classic conspiracy theory insists that things are not what they seem and gathers evidence-especially facts ominously withheld by official sources-to tease out secret machinations. The new conspiracism is different. There is no demand for evidence, no dots revealed to form a pattern, no close examination of shadowy plotters. Dispensing with the burden of explanation, the new conspiracism imposes its own reality through repetition (exemplified by the Trump catchphrase "a lot of people are saying") and bare assertion ("rigged!"). The new conspiracism targets democratic foundations-political parties and knowledge-producing institutions. It makes it more difficult to argue, persuade, negotiate, compromise, and even to disagree. Ultimately, it delegitimates democracy. Filled with vivid examples, A Lot of People Are Saying diagnoses a defining and disorienting feature of today's politics and offers a guide to responding to the threat.

From the food we eat, the water we drink to the air we breathe, everything these days seems capable of killing us. Recently we have seen an unprecedented number of deaths due to medications for diseases that may not even exist, obscure cancers caused by our modern devices, and brutal police tactics. All a coincidence? Think again. In Population Control, acclaimed journalist Jim Marrs lays out a stunning case for his most audacious conspiracy yet: the scheme concocted by a handful of global elites to reduce the world's population to 500 million by whatever means necessary and make a profit from it. Marrs, the bestselling author of Rule by Secrecy and The Trillion Dollar Conspiracy, pulls no punches in exposing this evil and chillingly effective plan. He explains how a small group of tremendously wealthy and powerful people control virtually every important industry - guns, oil, pharmaceuticals, food, and of course the media - and how it uses this vast network of conglomerates to take actions that lead to the deaths of men and women all over the world. In the explosive Population Control, Marrs lays bare the damning truths corporate owners don't want you to discover: how they've spied on private citizens, intentionally spread disease, and destroyed the planet chasing profits, all to improve the lives of a privileged few while eliminating everyone else. Finally, he offers a citizen's blueprint for fighting back.

Best-selling conspiracy writer Jim Keith follows up his previous books with this investigation of various Men in Black stories. Known to Ufologists as M.I.B.s, Keith chronicles the strange goings on surrounding UFO activity and often bizarre cars that they arrive in-literal flying cars Men In Black incidents straddle the realms of mysticism and science, occultism and UFOs, material reality and fantasy; partaking of all, defined by none. Since ancient times these mysterious beings have stalked the planet. In recent years they have tried to silence witnesses of UFO sightings with threats, harassment and worse. Who are these strange beings garbed all in black? Are they government agents? Aliens? Creatures from another dimension? In Casebook on the Men in Black, author Jim Keith traces the path of these unusual visitors through history, and presents startling evidence about their origin and purpose. According to the lore, UFO witnesses are sometimes harassed or intimidated by mysterious men dressed entirely in black. Are they government agents, sinister aliens, time-travel police from the future or some other interdimensional creatures?

Ruthless killers and murderers for hire: they are here, there, and everywhere. They lurk in the shadows, ready to pounce. They terminate on command. They change the course of the world. From the cunning, calculating, government-trained warriors to the psychopathic, homegrown freelancers, Assassinations: The Plots, Politics, and Powers behind History-Changing Murders exposes the hidden agendas, the open warfare, the cynical preparations, and devastating aftermaths of history's assassinations. You will be immersed in a world that is filled with killings made to seem like suicides, murders that were designed to look like heart-attacks or overdoses, and accidents that, in reality, were carefully orchestrated deaths. Covering 28 assassinations, attempts, and plots, this absorbing book takes an in-depth look at why so many famous and influential figures just had to go. With more than 120 photos and graphics, this tome is richly illustrated. A helpful bibliography and index add to its useful

In a quest to discover the truth behind the twentieth century's disastrous record of conflict and war, Terry Boardman considers two contradictory approaches to history: so-called cock-up theory and conspiracy theory. Could there be truth to the often-dismissed concept of conspiracy in history: the manipulation of external events by groups and individuals mostly hidden from the public eye? In the work of philosopher and scientist Rudolf Steiner, Boardman finds convincing evidence of the existence of secretive circles in the West, which have plans for humanity's long-term future. Steiner indicated that such 'brotherhoods' had prepared for world war in the twentieth century, and had instructed their members, using redrawn maps as a guide, on how Europe was to be changed. If these brotherhoods existed in Steiner's time, could they still be active today? Based on detailed research, Boardman concludes that such groups are directing world politics in our time. As backing for his theory, he studies a series of important articles and maps - ranging from an 1890 edition of the satirical journal Truth to more recent pieces from influential publications that speak for themselves. He concludes that vast plans are in progress for a New World Order to control and direct individuals and nations, and he calls us to be vigilant, awake and informed.

'The most gripping and satisfying thriller I've read in more than a decade' Sophie Hannah 'One of the best legal thrillers ... as elegant and gripping as Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent' Daily Mail 'Quite the tour de force! Twelve Angry Men meets Chinatown and creates something of its own' Sarah Pinborough 'This is a tense, emotionally charged, scary-good, stand-out read' Caroline Kepnes ********** MAJOR TV SERIES COMING SOON - FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT YOU NETFLIX'S UNBELIEVABLE... One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong? 'Ten years ago we made a decision together...' Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar fortune, vanishes on her way home from school. Her teacher, Bobby Nock, is the prime suspect. It's an open and shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed. Until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, persuades the rest of the jurors to vote not guilty: a controversial decision that will change all of their lives forever. Ten years later, one of the jurors is found dead, and Maya is the prime suspect. The real killer could be any of the other ten jurors. Is Maya being forced to pay the price for her decision all those years ago? ********** 'Plunge a syringe filled with adrenaline into the heart of Twelve Angry Men and you've got The Holdout: the first legal thriller in thirty years - ever since Presumed Innocent and A Time to Kill electrified readers the world over - to rank alongside those two modern classics.' AJ Finn 'A page-turning legal thriller with a twisty and absolutely riveting plot ... plus a strong and compelling female heroine. You won't be able to put this one down!' Lisa Scottoline 'Clever, well-written and twistier than a can of silly-string. You absolutely need to read The Holdout!' Emma Kavanagh 'Amazing thriller, deserves to be one of the biggest books of 2020' Michelle Davies 'Terrific, twisty and well-structured thriller' Adele Geras

Taking a global and interdisciplinary approach, the Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories provides a comprehensive overview of conspiracy theories as an important social, cultural and political phenomenon in contemporary life. This handbook provides the most complete analysis of the phenomenon to date. It analyses conspiracy theories from a variety of perspectives, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. It maps out the key debates, and includes chapters on the historical origins of conspiracy theories, as well as their political significance in a broad range of countries and regions. Other chapters consider the psychology and the sociology of conspiracy beliefs, in addition to their changing cultural forms, functions and modes of transmission. This handbook examines where conspiracy theories come from, who believes in them and what their consequences are. This book presents an important resource for students and scholars from a range of disciplines interested in the societal and political impact of conspiracy theories, including Area Studies, Anthropology, History, Media and Cultural Studies, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology.

JFK had won the Presidency in 1960 by a razor thin majority, and his reelection campaign for 1964 was expected to be as close. He began it in November 1963 with a kick-off multi-city, four-day swing across the important state of Texas. It was going unexpectedly well when shots were fired into his triumphant motorcade in downtown Dallas that ripped history apart, changing it forever The assassination of American President John F. Kennedy in 1963 came at the very height of both the Cold War following the Second World War and the Pax Americana that was thought to exist at the war's conclusion in 1945. The United States and its allies possessed a far greater number of nuclear weapons than their Soviet adversaries, but the latter could unleash World War 3 and a nuclear Armageddon that would destroy them all. The sudden and totally unexpected murder in broad daylight in an American city of one of the most popular presidents in history was the murder mystery of the 20th century. The Cold War could have become hot and nuclear within minutes. The murderer had to be found and vital questions had to be answered quickly. Who did it, why and who ordered Kennedy's assassination? Was the deed part of a conspiracy: foreign, domestic or both? Were none of the these questions part of the bloody puzzle and was it entirely possible that only one man was responsible? The questions remain to this very day and Dallas Fifty Years On: The Murder of John F. Kennedy reveals sensational new evidence, eyewitness accounts and top secret documentation.

"This book names the most powerful forces in Europe which organized the Fascist and Nazi parties and movement, the powerful American forces which own, control and subsidize native Fascism, and the spokesmen, radio orators, writers and other agents of reaction in America." Facts and Fascism is the definitive account and source book on Fascism in the United States after the First World War and on into the Second. No doubt every subsequent work on this explosive topic owes a great debt to this original research. By crusading investigative journalist George Seldes, the book is in three parts: 1) The Big Money and Big Profits in Fascism, 2) Native Fascist Forces, and 3) Our Press as a Fascist Force. The first part reveals the backing of U.S. and British big business behind the rise of Fascism and militarism, with chapters on Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain, the Nazi cartels and the National Association of Manufacturers. The author was a reporter in Italy in the early 20's as Fascism got its start, and wrote a full-length, critical portrait of Mussolini. In "Native Fascist Forces," Seldes first tells the story of the botched putsch by J. P. Morgan and the American Legion against FDR in 1934 - surely one of the most hushed-up episodes in US history. Next Seldes dissects the Ford empire's support for Nazism and its repressive, even murderous labor practices, and Nazi apologists like Lindbergh, Father Coughlin and the Reader's Digest. The third part explores and deplores acts of treason by war-profiteering heavy industry and by the major newspaper chains. He exposes their habit of faking news for their political agenda, going back to the 1850's in support of black slavery, and white servitude - that is, with attacks on labor and social justice. The last chapter discusses profiteering from a different form of slavery, the tobacco addiction. Among the appendices is one on the definition of Fascism, and data on Who Owns America - thirteen plutocratic families.

Seeking the truth about UFOs in America, Mark Pilkington and John Lundberg uncover a 60 year-old story stranger than any conspiracy thriller. Through the fascinating account of their quest Mark Pilkington reveals the long history of UFOria and its parallels in little known tales from the murky worlds of espionage, psychological warfare and advanced military technology. Along the way he discovers that the truth about flying saucers is stranger and more complex than either the ufologists or debunkers would have us believe. As he crossed the US meeting intelligence agents, disinformation specialists and UFO hunters Pilkington was confronted with a dizzying array of ever more outrageous claims and counter claims. As a result he began to suspect that, instead of covering up stories of crashed flying saucers, alien contacts and secret underground bases, the US intelligence agencies had actually been promoting them all along. Meanwhile he has to deal with his own uncertainties, the suspicions of the UFO community and a partner who is starting to believe that conspiracy theorists might be right after all. With a fresh, funny and objective approach, Pilkington is the ideal guide to steer us through these strange territories, where nothing is quite as it seems and reality is just a matter of managing perceptions.

Conspiracy theory and American foreign policy examines the relationship between secrecy, power and interpretation around international controversy, where foreign policy orthodoxy comes up hard against alternative interpretations. It does so in the context of US foreign policy during the War on Terror, a conflict that was covert and conspiratorial to its core. Offering a new dimension to debates on post-truth politics, this book critically examines the 'Arab-Muslim paranoia narrative': the view that Arab-Muslim resentment towards America is motivated to some degree by a paranoid perception of American power in the Middle East. This narrative is traced from its roots in a post-War liberal understanding of populism through to foreign policy debates about the origins of 9/11, to the strategic heart of the Bush Administration's War of Ideas. Balancing conceptual innovation with detailed case analysis, Aistrope provides a window into the ideological commitments of the US War on Terror. Offering a fascinating insight into conspiracy and paranoia, this book is essential reading for those interested in the relationship between secrecy, power, and contemporary politics. -- .

***THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER*** 'Hancock's books provide a fascinating, alternative version of prehistory. America Before, detailed and wide-ranging, turns what was myth and legend into a new story of the past.' Daily Mail Was an advanced civilization lost to history in the global cataclysm that ended the last Ice Age? Graham Hancock, the internationally bestselling author and television presenter, has made it his life's work to find out -- and in America Before, he draws on the latest archaeological and DNA evidence to bring his quest to a stunning conclusion. We've been taught that North and South America were empty of humans until around 13,000 years ago - amongst the last great landmasses on earth to have been settled by our ancestors. But new discoveries have radically reshaped this long-established picture and we know now that the Americas were first peopled more than 130,000 years ago - many tens of thousands of years before human settlements became established elsewhere. Hancock's research takes us on a series of journeys and encounters with the scientists responsible for the recent extraordinary breakthroughs. In the process, from the Mississippi Valley to the Amazon rainforest, he reveals that ancient 'New World' cultures share a legacy of advanced scientific knowledge and sophisticated spiritual beliefs with supposedly unconnected 'Old World' cultures. Have archaeologists focussed for too long only on the 'Old World' in their search for the origins of civilization while failing to consider the revolutionary possibility that those origins might in fact be found in the 'New World'? America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilisation is the culmination of everything that millions of readers have loved in Hancock's body of work over the past decades, namely a mind-dilating exploration of the mysteries of the past, amazing archaeological discoveries and profound implications for how we lead our lives today.

Ever since the Warren Commission concluded that a lone gunman assassinated President John F. Kennedy, people who doubt that finding have been widely dismissed as conspiracy theorists, despite credible evidence that right-wing elements in the CIA, FBI, and Secret Service-and possibly even senior government officials-were also involved. Why has suspicion of criminal wrongdoing at the highest levels of government been rejected out-of-hand as paranoid thinking akin to superstition? 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. Lance deHaven-Smith reveals that the term "conspiracy theory" entered the American lexicon of political speech to deflect criticism of the Warren Commission and traces it back to a CIA propaganda campaign to discredit doubters of the commission's report. He asks tough questions and connects the dots among five decades' worth of suspicious events, including the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, the attempted assassinations of George Wallace and Ronald Reagan, the crimes of Watergate, the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages deal, the disputed presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, the major defense failure of 9/11, and the subsequent anthrax letter attacks. Sure to spark intense debate about the truthfulness and trustworthiness of our government, Conspiracy Theory in America offers a powerful reminder that a suspicious, even radically suspicious, attitude toward government is crucial to maintaining our democracy.

On 10 May 1941, Rudolf Hess - Deputy Fuhrer of the Third Reich - embarked on his astonishing flight from Augsburg to Scotland. At dusk the same day, he parachuted on to a Scottish moor and was taken into custody. His arrival provoked widespread curiosity and speculation, which has continued to this day. Why did Hess fly to Scotland? Had Hitler authorized him to attempt to negotiate peace? Was British Intelligence involved? What was his state of mind at the time? Drawing on a variety of reliable archive and eyewitness sources in Britain, Germany and the USA, authors Roy Conyers Nesbit and Georges van Acker have written what must be the most objective assessment of the Hess' story yet to be published. Their compelling narrative not only dispels many of the extraordinary conspiracy theories, but also uncovers some intriguing new facts.