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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Controversial knowledge
The 37th Parallel tells the true story of a computer programmer whose investigations into alien activity lead him deep into a vast conspiracy stretching 3000 miles across America. Chuck Zukowski is obsessed with tracking down UFO reports, but this innocent hobby takes on a sinister urgency when he makes a horrifying discovery. As he traces a series of incidents across Utah, Colorado and Kansas, a pattern emerges: a horizontal line of unexplained activity stretching right across America, a line some are calling the 'UFO Highway' or the '37th Parallel'. His extraordinary journey takes him from El Paso to the Pentagon, into secret underground military caverns and Indian sacred sites. This terrifying account will keep you awake at night, pondering some of the biggest and most inescapable questions humanity faces: are we really alone in this vast universe? And if not, who are our neighbours?
Vampires and Vampirism (1914) is a work from another era, a time when belief and wonder led some to travel down pathways of knowledge in search of truth and terror, not knowing what they would find. Written in response to an "awakened [popular] interest in supernormal phenomena" in the early twentieth century, Dudley Wright's Vampires and Vampirism traces the history of vampirism around the world, from ancient Babylonia, Assyria, and Greece, to Great Britain, Germany, and Eastern Europe. Beginning with the question "What is a vampire?", Wright seeks to first define the term before moving into an analysis of how belief in vampirism emerged from various and distant religious and cultural traditions. Each chapter uses a scholarly mix of ancient and modern sources to enlighten the reader, and the book culminates in a chapter titled "Fact or Fiction?", which allows the reader to hear from believers and skeptics alike. The book includes harrowing personal accounts of outbreaks of vampirism in British India and Mexico, as well as a lengthy bibliography. In a world where matters of occult nature, such as astrology, have reentered the popular consciousness, Vampires and Vampirism is sure to be of interest. It is also a fascinating document of a time when Europeans-faced with spiritual doubt and inspired by religious traditions and myths from the outer reaches of empire-sought to establish new systems of belief, new orders they hoped could replace those they feared were quickly becoming lost. At times despicable, and always controversial, Dudley Wright was a tireless searcher whose life included conversions to Islam and Catholicism, forays into anti-Semitism-later retracted-and a deep, spiritual involvement with organizations dedicated to matters both visible and invisible, true and beyond belief. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this new edition of Dudley Wright's Vampires and Vampirism is a classic of history and horror reimagined for modern readers.
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660 changed the lives of English republicans for good. Despite the Declaration of Breda, where Charles II promised to forgive those who had acted against his father and the monarchy during the Civil War and Interregnum, opponents of the Stuart regime felt unsafe, and many were actively persecuted. Nevertheless, their ideas lived on in the political underground of England and in the exile networks they created abroad. While much of the historiography of English republicanism has focused on the British Isles and the legacy of the English Revolution in the American colonies, this study traces the lives, ideas and networks of three seventeenth-century English republicans who left England for the European continent after the Restoration. Based on sources from a range of English and continental European archives, Gaby Mahlberg explores the lived experiences of these three exiles - Edmund Ludlow in Switzerland, Henry Neville in Italy, and Algernon Sidney - for a truly transnational perspective on early modern English republicanism.
One day in November 1958, the celebrated historian Hugh Trevor-Roper received a curious letter. It was an appeal for help, written on behalf of a student at Magdalen College, with the unlikely claim that he was being persecuted by the Bishop of Oxford. Curiosity piqued, Trevor-Roper agreed to a meeting. It was to be his first encounter with Robert Parkin Peters: plagiarist, bigamist, fraudulent priest and imposter extraordinaire. The Professor and the Parson traces the strange career of one of Britain's most eccentric criminals. Motivated not by money but by a desire for prestige, Peters' lied, stole and cheated his way to academic positions and religious posts from Cambridge to New York, Singapore and South Africa. Frequently deported, and even more frequently discovered, his trail of destruction included seven marriages (three of which were bigamous), an investigation by the FBI and a disastrous appearance on Mastermind. Based on Trevor-Roper's own detailed 'file on Peters', The Professor and the Parson is a witty and charming account of eccentricity, extraordinary narcissism and a life as wild and unlikely as any in fiction.
The long-hidden story of a family we thought we knew--and of a power-making apparatus that we have barely begun to comprehend. After eight disastrous years, George W. Bush leaves office as one of the most unpopular presidents in American history. Russ Baker asks the question that lingers even as this benighted administration winds down: Who really wanted this man at the helm of the country, and why did his backers promote him despite his obvious liabilities and limitations? This book goes deep behind the scenes to deliver an arresting new look at George W. Bush, his father George H. W. Bush, their family, and the network of figures in intelligence, the military, finance, and oil who enabled the family's rise to power. Baker's exhaustive investigation reveals a remarkable clan whose hermetic secrecy and code of absolute loyalty have concealed a far-reaching role in recent history that transcends the Bush presidencies. Baker offers new insights into lingering mysteries--from the death of John F. Kennedy to Richard Nixon's downfall in Watergate. Here, too, are insider accounts of the backroom strategizing, and outright deception, that resulted in George W. Bush's electoral success. Throughout, Baker helps us understand why we have not known these things before. "Family of Secrets "combines compelling narrative with eye-opening revelations. It offers the untold history of the machinations that have shaped American politics over much of the last century.
Like the McCarthy era of the 1950s, there is a strong current of
paranoid social thought as the end of the century approaches.
Conspiracy theories abound, not only in extremist ideologies and
groups, but in commerce, science, and economics-arenas where a
paranoid style is least expected. A curiosity about paranoia at its
most reasonable is at the root of this volume.
All that was left of Doctor Linda Hazzard's sanitorium was the foundation and the masonry incinerator that swelled from the ground like a huge grave marker. A perfect row of old firs and pines lined up like sentinels along the road. Every one of the trees marked the spot where the doctor had buried each of her victims. In 1911 two wealthy British heiresses, Claire, and Dora Williamson, arrived at an unfinished sanitorium in the forests of Olalla, Washington to undergo the revolutionary "fasting treatment" of Doctor Linda Burfield Hazzard. It was supposed to be a holiday for the two sisters, but within a month of arriving at what the locals called 'Starvation Heights', the women underwent brutal, evasive procedures and became emaciated shadows of their former selves. How did Hazzard persuade the sisters to undergo such monstrous treatments? And why, on Claire's deathbed, did Dora, near to death herself, still hold such an extreme belief in Hazzard's methods? In this chilling true story of deception and murder, Gregg Olsen brings us inside the disturbing world of Hazzard who would stop at nothing to achieve her dream of creating the most renowned sanatorium in the world - but ended up a convicted serial killer. A gripping and fascinating account of the most unusual and disturbing criminal cases in American history that will hook fans of The Five and The Devil in the White City. What readers are saying about Starvation Heights: "A fascinating turn-of-the-century story of medical malpractice and murder. If you liked The Alienist, you'll find Starvation Heights all the more gripping because this story is true." Michael Connelly "An engrossing and compelling look at a shocking crime in another era. Olsen's deft touch takes us back to the early 1900s so cleverly that reading Starvation Heights is akin to stepping into a time machine." Ann Rule "Even the most devoted true-crime reader will be shocked by the maddening and mind-boggling acts of horror that Gregg Olsen chronicles in this book. Olsen has done it again, giving readers a glimpse into a murderous duo that's so chilling, it will have your head spinning. I could not put this book down!" Aphrodite Jones, New York Times bestselling author "One of today's true-crime masters." Caitlin Rother, New York Times bestselling author "An account of real-life villainy that outdoes anything a novelist might concoct." Les Standiford, author of Meet You in Hell
Many thousands of years ago, a group of extraterrestrials from another planet guided the evolution of life on Earth--determining the existence and nature of humankind as we know it today. How did the master builders from the stars construct the miracle called man? Is the DNA that is at the core of all life in the universe a "cosmic code" that links Earth to heaven and man to God? In this sixth volume of The Earth Chronicles, Zecharia Sitchin unveils writings from the past to decipher prophesies, and reveals how the DNA-matched Hebrew alphabet and the numerical values of its letters serve as a code that bares the secrets of mortal man's fate and mankind's celestial destiny.
From the Father Stunter Culture that says fathers are less than to masculinity narratives telling men theres only one way to be a father -- lets face it -- fathers are dealt a short shaft. The truth? We need fathers more than ever. We've an urgent task to set things right with, and for, fathers. And its one that must be done. If you don't agree; this book is not for you. SPUNK: A Manifesto Modernising Fatherhood elevates the conversation about modern fatherhood beyond the nuts and bolts of daddy daycare as it goes deep inside how men view their fathering as they attempt (day in, day out) to be a dad to their kids. Inside SPUNK you will discover more than a thousand men revealing what it means to be a father in this fast-changing world. Through a combination of brand-new research married alongside portraits from acclaimed podcast, School for Fathers, men uncover how much being a father is a whole new, often confusing, ballgame. Fathers are simultaneously stunted by outdated structures while held tight to fixed notions of manhood leaving them (and us) in something of a hot mess. SPUNK is a pragmatic tell-all of why fathers behave in the ways they do and a problem-solving roadmap for the kind of fatherhood men are already shooting for but struggling to grasp. The kind of fatherhood our children yearn for and deserve. Using data from fathers globally, SPUNK provides answers to: What kind of SPUNK do modern fathers need? How do fathers with this SPUNK raise their children? Why SPUNK will lead the way to a more authentic and fulfilled fatherhood identity. This straight-shooting book offers practical alternatives to sucking up the same old BS from the world we live in -- the media, policies, laws and workplace structures -- that attempts, relentlessly, to control what fathers are (not) capable of. Compassion, candour and radical father-allyship form the foundation of change as we collectively must ask, whats needed now for a better future for fathers and our children? The answer is SPUNK.
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.
This volume explores how imperial powers established and expanded their empires through decisions that were often based on exaggerated expectations and wishful thinking, rather than on reasoned and scientific policies. It explores these exaggerations through the concepts of El Dorado, utopias and dystopias - undertakings based on irrational perceived values - in case studies from across the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, and incorporates imperial traditions including Scottish, British, French, German, Italian and American. Various colonial spaces are considered, from the Mediterranean, Middle East, Africa, Australia, Asia and the Americas, and in doing so, the contributors offer new insights into the nature of imperialism and colonial settlement. -- .
The author analyses a breakaway civilization seeking to protect its control over advanced technologies and to project itself into outer space while waging a covert war here on earth with the same advanced technologies and the rest of humanity be damned.
'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.
The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons (LGBT) are strongly contested by certain faith communities, and this confrontation has become increasingly pronounced following the adjudication of a number of legal cases. As the strident arguments of both sides enter a heated political arena, it brings forward the deeply contested question of whether there is any possibility of both communities' contested positions being reconciled under the same law. This volume assembles impactful voices from the faith, LGBT advocacy, legal, and academic communities - from the Human Rights Campaign and ACLU to the National Association of Evangelicals and Catholic and LDS churches. The contributors offer a 360-degree view of culture-war conflicts around faith and sexuality - from Obergefell to Masterpiece Cakeshop - and explore whether communities with such profound differences in belief are able to reach mutually acceptable solutions in order to both live with integrity.
Michael Cremo, an international authority on human antiquity, has justly earned the 'forbidden archaeologist' title. For over twenty-seven years he's been digging up documented, credible findings that mainstream archaeologists don't want you to know about - discoveries in the fossil record that tell a completely different story from Darwinian evolution. This book presents his research at international scientific conferences, comments on the latest discoveries and 'missing links', examines famous archaeological sites such as the Sterkfontein Caves - the alleged cradle of humanity - and responds to mixed reactions to his books, now translated into twenty-six languages. This collection of forty-nine articles published in "Atlantis Rising" magazine is like the Cliff Notes on his best-selling, encyclopaedic "Forbidden Archaeology" and formidable "Human Devolution". Readers will quickly understand the strongest arguments and remarkable discoveries that reveal evolution as a failing theory.
THE EMERGING NEW WORLD ORDER A depraved satanic cult called the Illuminati is waging a covert war against humanity. This is the key to understanding mankind's tragic history and current predicament. For more than a thousand years, Cabalist money lenders have conspired to usurp power from church and aristocracy, according to a plan detailed in "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." This plan does not represent Jews, but only a small cabal of bankers who organized in Masonic secret societies. They intermarried with prominent Gentiles and formed a vast occult and criminal underground. They are stealthily constructing a totalitarian world government. Taking God's place, secularism is a transition step to their Satanism. They involve nations in needless wars and enthrall the masses with porn, violence, trivia and toys. They attack our sources of identity and love - God (religion); family (gender); country and race - in order to stymie and dehumanize us. Sounds incredible, but after reading some of these 90 short essays, you'll nod in agreement. Their goal is to control your mind. If you know the truth, they can't.
The "New York Times" bestseller about the strange history of NASA and its cover-ups regarding its origins and extraterrestrial architecture found on the moon and Mars is even more interesting in its new edition. Authors Richard C. Hoagland and Mike Bara include a new chapter
about the discoveries made by ex-Nazi scientist and NASA stalwart
Wernher von Braun regarding what he termed "alternate gravitational
solutions," or the rewriting of Newtonian physics into
hyperdimensional spheres.
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.
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 fascinating and bizarre collection compiles the most unusual, obscure books from the far reaches of the human imagination throughout history. From the author of the critically acclaimed bestsellers The Phantom Atlas and The Sky Atlas comes a unique and beautifully illustrated journey through the history of literature. The Madman's Library delves into its darkest territories to hunt down the oddest books and manuscripts ever written, uncovering the intriguing stories behind their creation. From the Qur'an written in the blood of Saddam Hussein, to the gorgeously decorated fifteenth-century lawsuit filed by the Devil against Jesus, to the most enormous book ever created, The Madman's Library features many long forgotten, eccentric, and extraordinary volumes gathered from around the world. Books written in blood and books that kill, books of the insane and books that hoaxed the globe, books invisible to the naked eye and books so long they could destroy the Universe, books worn into battle and books of code and cypher whose secrets remain undiscovered. Spell books, alchemist scrolls, wearable books, edible books, books to summon demons, books written by ghosts, and more all come together in the most curiously strange library imaginable. Featuring hundreds of remarkable images and packed with entertaining facts and stories to discover, The Madman's Library is a captivating compendium perfect for bibliophiles, literature enthusiasts, and collectors intrigued by bizarre oddities, obscure history, and the macabre.
Captain Charles Johnson's celebrated A General History of the Pirates (1724) is the most famous book about pirates ever written. Buoyed by the volume's runaway success Johnson followed up with the equally engrossing The Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen (1734) which, published here for the first time in two centuries, provides over 50 accounts of the most notorious British criminals of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These include the famous highwayman William Davis, alias The Golden Farmer, the cross-Channel gentleman highwayman Claude du Vall, the prolific road adventurer Old Mob and the royalist carriage raider James Hind. Johnson's volumes, featuring fictional accounts based on factual sources, are significant as the forerunners of the real-life criminal biography genre, and for their influence on such early novels as Defoe's Moll Flanders and Fielding's Jonathan Wild. Originally published in folio size complete with fine engravings, this new edition of Highwaymen not only includes the very best of these original decorative features but also presents a series of related illustrations, playbills, and portraits from the British Library collections. |
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