Download or read book Textual Conspiracies written by James Martel and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2011-07-28 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This is a sophisticated and fascinating argument written in a very enjoyably entertaining style. It is hard for me to see how readers initially interested in these texts will not be ‘swept off their feet’ by the core assertions of this author, and the devastatingly comprehensive way in which he demonstrates those arguments.” —Brent Steele, University of Kansas In Textual Conspiracies, James R. Martel applies the literary, theological, and philosophical insights of Walter Benjamin to the question of politics and the predicament of the contemporary left. Through the lens of Benjamin’s theories, as influenced by Kafka, of the fetishization of political symbols and signs, Martel looks at the ways in which various political and literary texts “speak” to each other across the gulf of time and space, thereby creating a “textual conspiracy” that destabilizes grand narratives of power and authority and makes the narratives of alternative political communities more apparent. However, in keeping with Benjamin’s insistence that even he is complicit with the fetishism that he battles, Martel decentralizes Benjamin’s position as the key theorist for this conspiracy and contextualizes Benjamin in what he calls a “constellation” of pairs of thinkers and writers throughout history, including Alexis de Tocqueville and Edgar Allen Poe, Hannah Arendt and Federico García Lorca, and Frantz Fanon and Assia Djebar.
Download or read book Pseudoscience written by Allison B. Kaufman and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Case studies, personal accounts, and analysis show how to recognize and combat pseudoscience in a post-truth world. In a post-truth, fake news world, we are particularly susceptible to the claims of pseudoscience. When emotions and opinions are more widely disseminated than scientific findings, and self-proclaimed experts get their expertise from Google, how can the average person distinguish real science from fake? This book examines pseudoscience from a variety of perspectives, through case studies, analysis, and personal accounts that show how to recognize pseudoscience, why it is so widely accepted, and how to advocate for real science. Contributors examine the basics of pseudoscience, including issues of cognitive bias; the costs of pseudoscience, with accounts of naturopathy and logical fallacies in the anti-vaccination movement; perceptions of scientific soundness; the mainstream presence of “integrative medicine,” hypnosis, and parapsychology; and the use of case studies and new media in science advocacy. Contributors David Ball, Paul Joseph Barnett, Jeffrey Beall, Mark Benisz, Fernando Blanco, Ron Dumont, Stacy Ellenberg, Kevin M. Folta, Christopher French, Ashwin Gautam, Dennis M. Gorman, David H. Gorski, David K. Hecht, Britt Marie Hermes, Clyde F. Herreid, Jonathan Howard, Seth C. Kalichman, Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, Arnold Kozak, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Emilio Lobato, Steven Lynn, Adam Marcus, Helena Matute, Ivan Oransky, Chad Orzel, Dorit Reiss, Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter, Kavin Senapathy, Dean Keith Simonton, Indre Viskontas, John O. Willis, Corrine Zimmerman
Download or read book Cults and Conspiracies written by Theodore Ziolkowski and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2017-01-16 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After much investigation, Ziolkowski reinforces Umberto Eco's notion that the most powerful secret, the magnetic center of conspiracy fiction, is in fact "a secret without content."
Download or read book Conspiracy Encyclopedia written by Thom Burnett and published by Franz Steiner Verlag. This book was released on 2006 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conspiracies are everywhere. they are the lifeblood of politics, business and our daily lives. this truly international and all-embracing encyclopedia explains the details of the world's major popular conspiracies, listing them chronologically under subject matter and cross-referencing them continually (because so many conspiracy theories interact on some level). Conspiracies are often international in their sweep and their impact. the brutal stabbing of Julius Caesar (the conspiracy which has defined political assassinations ever since) plunged the Roman Empire into civil war, which then engulfed much of the known western world. More recently the Cambridge spies (Philby, Blunt, MacLean and Burgess) helped Russia throughout WWII and then re-defined the Cold War afterwards, Philby's defection casting a 30-year shadow over CIA/Anglo-American relations. though conspiracies define our everyday lives, there is no body of serious academic research to understand their role, nature or defining characteristics. Most historians prefer to adhere to the cock-up theory of history, in which everything happens by accident or incompetence. Although this view is favoured by academics and historians, it is rejected by a large part of the general public who prefer the evidence of their own lives. However they consume their media, what they see is a mesh of conspiracies that define the texture of their everyday lives, often for the worst. Most people believe that there is a grain of truth in most theories about conspiracies. this book is for them.
Download or read book Conspiracies of Rome written by Richard Blake and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-11-03 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rome, 609 AD Empire is a fading memory. Repeatedly fought over and plundered, the City is falling into ruins. Killers prowl by night. Far off, in Constantinople, the Emperor has other concerns as The Church is beginning to flex its own imperial muscle. Enter Aelric of England: young and beautiful, sexually uninhibited, heroic, if ruthlessly violent - and hungry for the learning of a world that is dying around him. A deadly brawl outside Rome sucks him straight into the high politics of Empire. Soon, Aelric is involved in a race against time to find answers before he ends up as just another corpse in the gutter. Praise for the Novels of Richard Blake 'Fascinating to read, very well written, an intriguing plot and I enjoyed it very much.' - Derek Jacobi, star of I Claudius and Gladiator 'Vivid characters, devious plotting and buckets of gore are enhanced by his unfamiliar choice of period.... Nasty, fun and educational.' - The Daily Telegraph 'He knows how to deliver a fast-paced story and his grasp of the period is impressively detailed.' - The Mail on Sunday 'A rollicking and raunchy read . . . Anyone who enjoys their history with large dollops of action, sex, intrigue and, above all, fun will absolutely love this novel.' - Historical Novels 'It would be hard to over-praise this extraordinary series, a near-perfect blend of historical detail and atmosphere with the plot of a conspiracy thriller, vivid characters, high philosophy and vulgar comedy.' - The Morning Star Richard Blake is a pseudonym for Sean Gabb, who is an historian, writer and university lecturer. He lives in Kent with his wife and daughter.
Download or read book Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States written by Samuel Finley Breese Morse and published by . This book was released on 1836 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Culture of Conspiracy written by Michael Barkun and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unravelling the genealogies and permutations of conspiracist worldviews, this work shows how this web of urban legends has spread among sub-cultures on the Internet and through mass media, and how this phenomenon relates to larger changes in American culture.
Download or read book Political Conspiracies in America written by Donald T. Critchlow and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2008-03-19 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conspiracy theories have been a part of the American experience since colonial times. There is a rich literature on conspiracies involving, among others, Masons, Catholics, Mormons, Jews, financiers, Communists, and internationalists. Although many conspiracy theories appear irrational, an exaggerated fear of a conspiracy sometimes proves to be well founded. This anthology provides students with documents relating to some of the more important and interesting conspiracy theories in American history and politics, some based on reality, many chiefly on paranoia. It provides a fascinating look at a persistent and at times troubling aspect of democratic society.
Download or read book Medieval Intrigue written by Ian Mortimer and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2010-09-16 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this important new work Ian Mortimer examines some of the most controversial questions in medieval history, including whether Edward II was murdered, his possible later life in Italy, the weakness of the Lancastrian claim to the throne in 1399 and the origins of the idea of the royal pretender. Central to this book is his ground-breaking approach to medieval evidence. He explains how an information-based method allows a more certain reading of a series of texts. He criticises existing modes of arriving at consensus and outlines a process of historical analysis that ultimately leads to questioning historical doubts as well as historical facts, with profound implications for what we can say about the past with certainty. This is an important work from one of the most original and popular medieval historians writing today.
Download or read book Cults and Conspiracies written by Theodore Ziolkowski and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2017-01-16 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After much investigation, Ziolkowski reinforces Umberto Eco’s notion that the most powerful secret, the magnetic center of conspiracy fiction, is in fact “a secret without content.”
Download or read book American Conspiracies written by Jesse Ventura and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Best Seller! New York Times bestselling author Jesse Ventura is back with more conspiracies that our government wishes you didn’t know about! In this explosive account of wrongful acts and ensuing cover-ups, Jesse Ventura offers a different side to the stories we’ve all heard and read about in the history books. He takes a look at the wide gap between what the government knows and what is revealed to the American people. The media is complicit in these acts of deception, often refusing to consider alternate possibilities and dismissing voices that diverge from public opinion. He will look closely at the theories that have been presented over the years and examine the truth as well as the lies. Ventura does not shy away from the tough questions. As he states, “When I get denied something, I do the opposite of getting intimidated—I get angry.” Now with new conspiracies added including information on the CIA torture scandal and the financial meltdown of 2008, you will see how the United States government continues to abuse our civil liberties and why we need to continue to stand up for what we know is right. You may not believe everything in American Conspiracies, but it is guaranteed to make you think harder about everything you do believe. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Download or read book The Shakespeare Conspiracy written by Ted Bacino and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2010-07-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TWO QUESTIONS HAVE ALWAYS PLAGUED HISTORIANS: HOW COULD Christopher Marlowe, a known spy and England's foremost playwright, be suspiciously murdered and quickly buried in an unmarked grave just days before he was to be tried for treason? HOW COULD William Shakespeare replace Marlowe as England's greatest playwright virtually overnight when Shakespeare had never written anything before and was merely an unknown actor? Historians have noted that the Bard of Stratford was better known at that time for holding horses for the gentry while they watched plays. The Shakespeare Conspiracy is a historical novel that intertwines the two mysteries and then puts the pieces together to offer the only possible resolution. The novel, a wild romp through gay 16th Century Elizabethan England, is a rapidly unfolding detective story filled with comedy, intrigue, murder and illicit love. And most importantly, all recorded events, persons, dates and documents are historically accurate. You will Get the scandalous view of the real William Shakespeare, with his sexual peccadilloes, illegitimate children and mistresses Wander through the gay world of Christopher Marlowe, when it was acceptable to be homosexual just so long as one stayed within one's own class as did Kings like James I, Edward II, and others Observe Inspector Henry Maunder matching wits with Christopher Marlowe's patron, Sir Thomas Walsingham one cleverly hiding the facts and other cunningly discovering the truth Watch the arguments unfold, showing the actual reasons that many historians believe that it could only have been Christopher Marlowe writing all those great works. It's a tale of murder, mayhem and manhunts in the underbelly of London as the Black Plague scourges the country and the greatest conspiracy plot of all time is hatched. It's The Shakespeare Conspiracy!
Download or read book Conspiracy Theories written by Mark Fenster and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: JFK, Karl Marx, the Pope, Aristotle Onassis, Queen Elizabeth II, Howard Hughes, Fox Mulder, Bill Clinton -- all have been linked to vastly complicated global (or even galactic) intrigues. In this enlightening tour of conspiracy theories, Mark Fenster guides readers through this shadowy world and analyzes its complex role in American culture and politics. Fenster argues that conspiracy theories are a form of popular political interpretation and contends that understanding how they circulate through mass culture helps us better understand our society as a whole. To that end, he discusses Richard Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in American Politics, the militia movement, The X-Files, popular Christian apocalyptic thought, and such artifacts of suspicion as The Turner Diaries, the Illuminatus! trilogy, and the novels of Richard Condon. Fenster analyzes the "conspiracy community" of radio shows, magazine and book publishers, Internet resources, and role-playing games that promote these theories. In this world, the very denial of a conspiracy's existence becomes proof that it exists, and the truth is always "out there." He believes conspiracy theory has become a thrill for a bored subculture, one characterized by its members' reinterpretation of "accepted" history, their deep cynicism about contemporary politics, and their longing for a utopian future. Fenster's progressive critique of conspiracy theories both recognizes the secrecy and inequities of power in contemporary politics and economics and works toward effective political engagement. Probing conspiracy theory's tendencies toward scapegoating, racism, and fascism, as well as Hofstadter's centrist acceptance of a postwar American"consensus, " he advocates what conspiracy theory wants but cannot articulate: a more inclusive, engaging political culture.
Download or read book Plots Designs and Schemes written by Michael Butter and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2014-05-08 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plots, Designs, and Schemes is the first study that investigates the long history of American conspiracy theories from the perspective of literary and cultural studies. Since research in these fields has so far almost exclusively focused on the contemporary period, the book concentrates on the time before 1960. Four detailed case studies offer close readings of the Salem witchcraft crisis of 1692, fears of Catholic invasion during the 1830s to 1850s, antebellum conspiracy theories about slavery, and anxieties about Communist subversion during the 1950s. The study primarily engages with factual texts, such as sermons, pamphlets, political speeches, and confessional narratives, but it also analyzes how fears of conspiracy were dramatized and negotiated in fictional texts, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown (1835) or Hermann Melville's Benito Cereno (1855). The book offers three central insights: 1. The American predilection for conspiracy theorizing can be traced back to the co-presence and persistence of a specific epistemological paradigm that relates all effects to intentional human action, the ideology of republicanism, and the Puritan heritage. 2. Until far into the twentieth century, conspiracy theories were considered a perfectly legitimate form of knowledge. As such, they shaped how many Americans, elites as well as “common” people, understood and reacted to historical events. The Revolutionary War and the Civil War would not have occurred without widespread conspiracy theories. 3. Although most extant research claims the opposite, conspiracy theories have never been as marginal and unimportant as in the past decades. Their disqualification as stigmatized knowledge only occurred around 1960, and coincided with a shift from theories that detect conspiracies directed against the government to conspiracies by the government.
Download or read book Conspiracy Literature in Early Renaissance Italy written by Marta Celati and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the topic and treatment of conspiracy in fifteenth-century Italian literature. It situates the theme of conspiracy within the literary and historical contexts of the period, examines its representation within four key texts, and reflects on the legacy of these literary-historical works over the following century.
Download or read book Conspiracy Theory Discourses written by Massimiliano Demata and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conspiracy Theory Discourses addresses a crucial phenomenon in the current political and communicative context: conspiracy theories. The social impact of conspiracy theories is wide-ranging and their influence on the political life of many nations is increasing. Conspiracy Theory Discourses bridges an important gap by bringing discourse-based insights to existing knowledge about conspiracy theories, which has so far developed in research areas other than Linguistics and Discourse Studies. The chapters in this volume call attention to conspiracist discourses as deeply ingrained ways to interpret reality and construct social identities. They are based on multiple, partly overlapping analytical frameworks, including Critical Discourse Analysis, rhetoric, metaphor studies, multimodality, and corpus-based, quali-quantitative approaches. These approaches are an entry point to further explore the environments which enable the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and the paramount role of discourse in furthering conspiracist interpretations of reality.
Download or read book Plots Literary Form and Conspiracy Culture written by Ben Carver and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-29 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection contributes to the study of conspiracy culture by analysing the relationship of literary forms to the formation, reception, and transformation of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are narratives, and their narrative form provides the structure within which their ‘readers’ situate themselves when interpreting the world and its history. At the same time, conspiracist interpretations of the world may then be transmediated into works of literature and import popular discourse into narrative structures. The suppression and disappearance of books themselves may generate conspiracy theories and become co-opted into political dissent. Additionally, literary criticism itself is shown to adopt conspiracist modes of interpretation. By examining conspiracy plots as literary plots, with narrative, rhetorical, and symbolic characteristics, this volume is the first systematic study of how conspiracy culture in American and European history is the consequence of its interactions with literature. This book will be of great interest to researchers of conspiracy theories, literature, and literary criticism.
