The Department of Distractions, an organisation so clandestine you won't have heard of them. Until now. They say their job is to plant stories in the world 'to make life more interesting.' Others would argue that their job is as much to stop us looking in certain directions. But a story they started has got out of hand, they've lost control of it and now they're in danger of being exposed. How far will they go to maintain their anonymity? Third Angel brings you a conspiracy theory documentary-expose detective story for the 21st century that asks: What aren't you looking at? #TheDepartmentOfDistractions

'Brilliant, a 5 out of 5 masterpiece' 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 that occurs is the result of the secret machinations of malign groups of people manipulating everything from behind the scenes is 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. This book 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 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.

Conspiracy theories have become a major element in modern opinion formation. From the theory that the killing of President Kennedy was masterminded by a powerful conspiracy to the theory that 9/11 was an inside job, from the story that Barack Obama wasn't born in America to the story that Donald Trump was a Russian asset, conspiracy theories have become a major element in opinion formation and an ever-present influence, sometimes open, sometimes hidden, on the daily headline news. In Conspiracy Theories, philosophers of diverse backgrounds and persuasions focus their lenses on the phenomenon of the conspiracy theory, its psychological causes, its typical shape, and its political consequences. Among the questions addressed: What's the formula for designing a contagious conspiracy theory? Where does conspiracy theorizing end and investigative reporting begin? What can we learn about conspiracy theories from the three movie treatments of the Kennedy assassination (The Parallax View, JFK, and Interview with the Assassin)? Does political powerlessness generate conspiracy theories? Is conspiracy theorizing essentially an instinct that lies behind all belief in religion and all striving for a meaningful life? Can we find conspiracy theories in all political movements for centuries past? What are the most common types of fallacious reasoning that tend to support conspiracy theories? Is there a psychological disorder at the root of conspiracy theories? Why is the number of flat-earthers growing?