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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Controversial knowledge > Conspiracy theories
The second edition of this popular text, updated throughout and now
including Covid-19 and the 2020 presidential election and
aftermath, introduces students to the research into conspiracy
theories and the people who propagate and believe them. In doing
so, Uscinski and Enders address the psychological, sociological,
and political sources of conspiracy theorizing. They rigorously
analyze the most current arguments and evidence while providing
numerous real-world examples so students can contextualize the
current debates. Each chapter addresses important current
questions, provides conceptual tools, defines important terms, and
introduces the appropriate methods of analysis.
Conspiracies have always been part of American culture, but with
the rise of social media has come an increase in belief in
nontraditional explanations of events. This book highlights a
subset of conspiratorial beliefs that grew in popularity in the
early 21st century. These beliefs and the growing cynicism of the
media have left conspiracy theorists with deep distrust of those in
authority. A number of theories that have arisen over the years are
explored. From QAnon beliefs regarding the United States government
to UFO reports and other hidden agendas, it is clear that we
continue to challenge old ways of thinking.
Fringe Rhetorics: Conspiracy Theories and the Paranormal identifies
these rhetorical similarities of conspiracy theories and paranormal
accounts by delving into rhetorical, psychosocial, and political
science research. Identifying something as "fringe" indicates its
proximal placement within accepted norms of contemporary society.
Both conspiracy theories and paranormal accounts dwell on the
fringes and both use surprisingly similar persuasive techniques.
Using elements of the Aristotelian canon as well as Oswald's
strengthening and weakening strategies, this book establishes a
pattern for the analysis of fringe rhetorics. It also applies this
pattern through rhetorical analyses of several documentaries and
provides suggestions for countering fringe arguments.
'Both hard to put down and brilliantly insightful ... a 5 out of 5
masterpiece' Martin Bentham, Evening Standard The renowned
historian of the Third Reich takes on the conspiracy theories
surrounding Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, in a vital history book for
the 'post-truth' age The idea that nothing happens by chance in
history, that nothing is quite what it seems to be at first sight,
that everything is the result of the secret machinations of malign
groups of people manipulating everything from behind the scenes -
these notions are as old as history itself. But conspiracy theories
are becoming more popular and more widespread in the twenty-first
century. Nowhere have they become more obvious than in revisionist
accounts of the history of the Third Reich. Long-discredited
conspiracy theories have taken on a new lease of life, given
credence by claims of freshly discovered evidence and novel angles
of investigation. In The Hitler Conspiracies renowned historian
Richard Evans takes five widely discussed claims involving Hitler
and the Nazis and subjects them to forensic scrutiny: that the Jews
were conspiring to undermine civilization, as outlined in The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion; that the German army was 'stabbed
in the back' by socialists and Jews in 1918; that the Nazis burned
down the Reichstag in order to seize power; that Rudolf Hess'
flight to the UK in 1941 was sanctioned by Hitler and conveyed
peace terms suppressed by Churchill; and that Hitler escaped the
bunker in 1945 and fled to South America. In doing so, it teases
out some surprising features that these, and other conspiracy
theories, have in common. This is a history book, but it is a
history book for the age of 'post-truth' and 'alternative facts': a
book for our own troubled times.
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