A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America

A Culture of Conspiracy
Cover, featuring the “Eye of Providence” on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States, which appears on the United States one-dollar bill.
Author(s)	Michael Barkun
Publisher	University of California Press; 1 edition
Pages	255
ISBN	0520238052
OCLC Number	51305869
Preceded by	Religion and the Racist Right
Followed by	Chasing Phantoms

A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America is a 2003 non-fiction book written by Michael Barkun, professor emeritus of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.^[1] Its publisher, the University of California Press, and scholarly critics describe the book as the most comprehensive and authoritative examination of contemporary American conspiracism to date by a leading expert on the subject.

Overview

Along with the Internet playing a key role in introducing individuals to beliefs once consigned to the outermost fringe of American political and religious life, Barkun points to the convergence of two phenomena that influences contemporary American conspiracism:

• The rise of “improvisational millennialism” — a belief in an imminent destruction of the world and the creation of a new world as a result of the triumph of good over evil, which is independent from any single religious or secular tradition (e.g., Christian premillennial dispensationalism, Marxist historical materialism, etc.) and indiscriminately syncretizes ideas from different traditions (e.g., Western esotericism, Eastern religions, New Age movement, fringe science, radical politics, etc.).
• The popularity of “stigmatized knowledge” — claims to the truth that the claimants regard as verified (e.g., location hypotheses of Atlantis, astrology, alchemy, folk medicine, alien abduction, extraterrestrial hypothesis for UFOs, suppressed cancer cures, etc.), despite the marginalization of those claims by the authoritative institutions that conventionally distinguish between knowledge and error (e.g., academia, scientific community, etc.).

Contents

Preface

1. The Nature of Conspiracy Belief
2. Millennialism, Conspiracy, and Stigmatized Knowledge
3. New World Order Conspiracies I: The New World Order and the Illuminati
4. New World Order Conspiracies II: A World of Black Helicopters
5. UFO Conspiracy Theories, 1975–1990
6. UFOs Meet the New World Order: Jim Keith and David Icke
7. Armageddon Below
8. UFOs and the Search for Scapegoats I: Anti-Catholicism and Anti-Masonry
9. UFOs and the Search for Scapegoats II: Anti-Semitism among the Aliens
10. September 11: The Aftermath
11. Conclusion: Millennialists from Outer Space

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Release details

Hardcover: 255 pages Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (November 7, 2003) Language: English ISBN 9780520238053

Paperback: 251 pages Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (May 4, 2006) Language: English ISBN 9780520248120

Reviews

In a February 2004 review,^[2] writer and political blogger Daniel Pipes wrote:

Some people believe in the lost continent of Atlantis and in unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Others worry about an 18th-century secret society called the Bavarian Illuminati or a mythical Zionist-Occupied Government secretly running the United States. What if these disparate elements shared beliefs, joined forces, won a much larger audience, broke out of their intellectual and political ghetto, and became capable of challenging the premises of public life in the United States? This is the frightening prospect, soberly presented by Michael Barkun in his important, just-published book.

See also

Apocalypticism Conspiracy theory Michael Barkun

Millennialism New World Order (conspiracy theory) UFO conspiracy theory

References

1. ^ Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press; 1 edition. ISBN 0520238052. 
2. ^ Pipes, Daniel (2004). [Michael Barkun on] Old Conspiracies, New Beliefs. http://www.danielpipes.org/1439/michael-barkun-on-old-conspiracies-new-beliefs. Retrieved 2009-09-14. 

External links

• University of California Press: [1]

Chapter 5: [2]

• Google Books: [3]
• Amazon.com: Hardcover [4], Paperback [5]
• C-Span Video Library: [6]

Reviews

• Pipes, Daniel. [Michael Barkun on] Old Conspiracies, New Beliefs. The New York Sun (13 January 2004). Retrieved on 2011-07-12
• Boyer, Paul S.. The Strange World of Conspiracy Theories. The Christian Century (27 July 2004). Retrieved on 2011-07-12
• Pratt, Ray. Review. The Montana Professor (Spring 2005). Retrieved on 2011-07-12
• Daschkea, Dereck. A Review of. Terrorism and Political Violence. Volume 18, Issue 4 (2006). Retrieved on 2011-07-12