Cliquer sur une vignette pour aller sur Google Books.
Chargement... Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy (édition 2023)par Colin Dickey (Auteur)
Information sur l'oeuvreUnder the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy par Colin Dickey
Aucun Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. All right, I know this is supposed to be a popular history, rather than a work of scholarship. But I really wanted more sources -- the author kept making claims that he didn't really support with argument. That being said, this is an entertaining look at some little known episodes in American history. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
"From beloved cultural historian and acclaimed author of Ghostland, a history of America's obsession with secret societies and the conspiracies of hidden power The United States was born in paranoia. From the American Revolution (thought by some to be a conspiracy organized by the French) to the Salem witch trials to the Satanic Panic, Illuminati and QAnon, one of the most enduring narratives that defines the United States is simply this: secret groups are conspiring to pervert the will of the people and the rule of law. We'd like to assume these panics exist only at the fringes of society, or are unique features of an internet age. But history tells us, in fact, that they are woven into the fabric of American democracy. Cultural historian Colin Dickey has built a career studying how our most irrational beliefs reach the mainstream, why, and what they tell us about ourselves. In UNDER THE EYE OF POWER, Dickey charts the history of America through its paranoias and fears of secret societies, while seeking to explain why so many people-including some of the most powerful people in the country-continue to subscribe to these conspiracy theories. Paradoxically, he finds, belief in the fantastical and conspiratorial can be more soothing than what we fear the most: the chaos and randomness of history, the rising and falling of fortunes in America, and the messiness of democracy. Only in seeing the cycle of this history, Dickey says, can we break it"-- Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucun
Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)366.0973Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Secret Societies (Freemasons, Knights Templar) GeneralClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
Est-ce vous ?Devenez un(e) auteur LibraryThing. |
Along the way, we get insights into the way attitudes about freemasons changed over time from seeing them as noble benefactors (back) to dark conspirators.
He also addressed the long history of anti-Catholicism in the US, brought over from England originally, but recurring over and over.
In fact, recurrence is maybe Dickey's key point: the same sorts of conspiratorial thinking come up again and again, with slight adjustments to their particular manifestations, targets, and secret manipulators. (Although, let's face it, they always—always—come back to blaming Jews.)
I've read a lot of books about conspiracies and their workings and history, but I learned a bunch of new things about US history and US-specific conspiracies that I hadn't encountered before. (As usual, of course, learning new things about US history pretty much always equates to learning new _bad_ things about US history.) ( )