Book Description
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.
Mark Fenster received his Ph.D. in communication from the University of Illinois and his law degree from Yale University. He currently lives in Denver.
Excerpt:
"Ultimately, I want to propose that the Utopian 'plot' to be uncovered is not composed of the exclusivity and secrets of conspiracy, but of the open-ended political struggle for equality, solidarity, and a transparent, participatory democracy that conspiracy theory might assume but can hardly imagine and cannot attain."
Customer Reviews:
Good Take on Enduring Issue.......2005-10-19
I got this book with several other similar books, doing some research for one of my clients. For me, it's the best overview of conspiracy theories and why they're so compelling to people. The psychological question of why these stories are so meaningful to some people is the most interesting question.
Excellent conspiracy genre.......2005-10-04
This book covers most of the conspiracy theories popular in the United States. It is a good contributing text to political science courses, and a great volume for those who wish answers about their government's activities. Don't look for answers in this book; it is a book that evokes questions only the reader can answer.
The Why behind conspiracy theories and buying this book..........2005-01-02
This book challenges and takes the reader to the next level by asking WHY! Why do conspiracy theories exist in American society and culture?
The answers are set in an eloquent academic prose but does tend to "quote" "incessantly" in a "few" chapters which becomes "really" really "annoying." However the author delivers an expectant high level of proficiency in subsequent chapters.
Buy this book if (1) you appreciate academic prose, (2) are fascinated in the WHY theories behind conspiracy in American culture and society and (3) this is your first peek into the genre.
Epitome of Academic Dryness.......2004-08-21
I read a lot, and more than a few books by academics. But even though I was keenly interested in the subject of this book, and what Fenster would have to say about it, I found the reading so utterly dry and boring that I couldn't get even a third of the way through the book. I put it down and came back to it several times, trying to bring a freshness to it. But each time I was drugged to catatonia within a few pages. I gave up trying to read it straight through, and tried skimming and jumping around to get some key points. It didn't help. The author appears more intent on scholarly notes and quotes and references, than on making a clear and readable narrative. Unless you are an academic doing research, or a lay reader with an iron stomach for this kind of material, I would find another book.
The truth is out there..........2000-05-18
I recall a quote from Robert Anton Wilson who said, "Anyone in the United States who isn't paranoid must be crazy." I always thought that was an amusing quote, and it should've shown up in this book, probably! Fenster explores the prevalence of conspiracy theory in American culture in this very academic book. While his writing style is good, I warn you that this book seems aimed at academics, and not your garden-variety conspiracy buffs.
He begins with exploring Richard Hofstadter's work on the paranoid style of American politics, and leaps into studying the militia movement, later focusing on JFK, the X-Files, and other forms of "conspiracy as entertainment" and also examines millennial Christian groups and apocalyptic predictions, etc. Fenster is rigorous in his exploration of conspiracy theories-as he explains in the beginning, he is not detailing the theories so much as examining what they represent, both culturally and individually. In this, he does an excellent job, particularly regarding the militias.
He seeks to get past the old notion of conspiracy theory as pathology to seeing it as a legitimate, if extreme and disempowering expression of popular dissatisfaction with the status quo. This is an important observation: that conspiracy theory, by embracing the idea of all-powerful individual villainy (a secret group behind it all), instead of structural problems (capitalism, American democracy) people can actually affect and change, conspiracy theory saps the strength from people by making them paranoid bystanders to their own lives. But he's clear to point out how the structure of the American political system creates this line of thought, albeit unintentionally-the majority of Americans are marginalized in this society. The tonic for this would seem to be action, rather than taking refuge in conspiracy theory.
Overall, this book is worth your time, but don't read it as a titillating account of conspiracies or you will be disappointed. If you're curious about what makes these things tick, then this book is for you.
Book Description
With the ghost of Watergate still haunting our political conscience, one might expect American presidents to hesitate before invoking executive privilege. But in the wake of the Clinton impeachment and with the onset of the Bush years, we are again confronted with the questionable exercise of presidential prerogatives.
Mark Rozell's Executive Privilege has provided for the past decade an in-depth review of the historical exercise of executive privilege and an analysis of the proper scope and limits of presidential power. Now Rozell has updated this important work to cover two new presidents and show how both have revived the national debate over executive privilege.
Rozell takes a balanced approach to a subject mired in controversy, providing both a historical overview of the doctrine and an explanation of its importance in the American political process. Exercised as far back as George Washington, executive privilege caught modern America's attention with Nixon's abuses of power. Although it is viewed by many as undemocratic-—or even a "constitutional myth"—-Rozell argues that executive privilege not only derives from the Constitution but, if prudently used, even supports the president's efforts in constructing and implementing policy.
This new edition features a substantial new chapter on the Clinton and Bush presidencies, as well as textual revisions throughout that reflect the author's latest analysis of the proper scope of executive privilege, given the numerous secrecy controversies of the past decade. Rozell reviews Bill Clinton's resistance to numerous congressional and grand jury investigations and he assesses George W. Bush's proclivity for secrecy. Rozell explains how each of these presidents has sparked controversy over attempts to revive executive privilege—-in the process doing significant damage to this constitutional principle. He also addresses the potential roles and influence of both the judiciary and Congress regarding executive privilege.
Rozell continues to stress the legitimate role of executive privilege and looks to the day when a president can use it without embarrassment. His book remains the most balanced treatment available of this concept, and allows readers to better understand the impact of the Clinton years and also assess the Bush administration in action.
This book is part of the Studies in Government and Public Policy series.
Book Description
As seen on The Daily Show, July 24
State secrets, warrantless investigations and wiretaps, signing statements, executive privilege -- the executive branch wields many tools for secrecy. Since the middle of the twentieth century, presidents have used myriad tactics to expand and maintain a level of executive branch power unprecedented in this nation's history.
Most people believe that some degree of governmental secrecy is necessary. But how much is too much? At what point does withholding information from Congress, the courts, and citizens abuse the public trust? How does the nation reclaim rights that have been controlled by one branch of government?
With Presidential Secrecy and the Law, Robert M. Pallitto and William G. Weaver attempt to answer these questions by examining the history of executive branch efforts to consolidate power through information control. They find the nation's democracy damaged and its Constitution corrupted by staunch information suppression, a process accelerated when "black sites," "enemy combatants," and "ghost detainees" were added to the vernacular following the September 11, 2001, terror strikes.
Tracing the current constitutional dilemma from the days of the imperial presidency to the unitary executive embraced by the administration of George W. Bush, Pallitto and Weaver reveal an alarming erosion of the balance of power. Presidential Secrecy and the Law will be the standard in presidential powers studies for years to come.
Customer Reviews:
The Best Life of Hoover Written.......2006-01-12
This book is widely, and rightly, regarded as the best and most accurate biography of J. Edgar Hoover. Without an axe to grind, Mr. Powers presents the man, warts and all, in the most believable version of him among all the books existing on Hoover and the FBI. This is the gold standard.
First Review.......2000-05-19
this book was an indepth look at the life of J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI. It goes into great depth on his life and his services in the FBI. It is a source for information, however the writing is a bit slow at firslt. overall a great book though!
Book Description
A complex body of religious practices that spread throughout the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions; a form of spirituality that seemingly combines sexuality, sensual pleasure, and the full range of physical experience with the religious life--Tantra has held a central yet conflicted role within the Western imagination ever since the first "discovery" of Indian religions by European scholars. Always radical, always extremely Other, Tantra has proven a key factor in the imagining of India. This book offers a critical account of how the phenomenon has come to be.
Tracing the complex genealogy of Tantra as a category within the history of religions, Hugh B. Urban reveals how it has been formed through the interplay of popular and scholarly imaginations. Tantra emerges as a product of mirroring and misrepresentation at work between East and West--a dialectical category born out of the ongoing play between Western and Indian minds. Combining historical detail, textual analysis, popular cultural phenomena, and critical theory, this book shows Tantra as a shifting amalgam of fantasies, fears, and wish-fulfillment, at once native and Other, that strikes at the very heart of our constructions of the exotic Orient and the contemporary West.
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Chasing Dad (Rocket Power)
Adam Beechen , and
Artful Doodlers
Manufacturer: Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: 0689854544 |
Book Description
Otto and Reggie are worried. For the past week their dad has been leaving home early and coming back late -- and he's even skipped work! Is Ray in trouble? Is someone after him? Find out in this fast-paced story!
Customer Reviews:
Surfýs up.......2004-03-05
Otto and Reggie suspect their dad is up to something when he breaks his usual routine. They can't figure out if he's a secret agent or what. They decide to follow him to see what he's up to, and eventually find him on the beach practicing for the adult surfing meet. The book is not scary, but it is full of surfer slang. It contains about 400 words.
Average customer rating:
- Experience with the Politics of Lying
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The politics of lying: Government deception, secrecy, and power
David Wise
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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| Nonfiction
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Rights
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
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ASIN: 0394479327 |
Customer Reviews:
Experience with the Politics of Lying.......2003-04-22
I consider myself fortunate to have read "The Politics of Lying" by David Wise when it was first published at the time that I began my career as an airline pilot 30 years ago. The author's insight made it possible for me to understand much better the seemingly contradictory, illogical, malfunctioning government that I served as a Marine in [SE Asia]. I would also highly recommend "The Invisible Government" by David Wise to better understand how highly paid lobbyists for airlines and for defense contractors manage to raid the nation's tax revenues on behalf of their clients whenever necessary to compensate for their own mistakes without fear of enforcement of compliance issues. For instance, after the most disastrous day in aviation history on 9/11/2001, the FAA Rapid Response Team requested suggestions from the public concerning immediate actions that should be taken to protect the public from further aviation terrorism. As an airline Captain with many years of Boeing aircraft piloting experience, I suggested that aircraft be modified to provide the crew with sensor information about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in the cargo or clues about missiles being fired at the aircraft (e.g., TWA 800). In spite of more than a year of unpaid lobbying and my filing of a whistleblower claim, the aircraft manufacturers and airline operators have still managed to convince the government not to take any practical steps to mitigate the problem of unscreened cargo until an incident actually happens. The subject has been classified to hide the lack of progress. Meanwhile the [money] that would be required to modify 10,000 aircraft at [a price] is being wasted through airline subsidies that don't address this continuing risk to the American public.
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The Economics of Ecstasy: Tantra, Secrecy and Power in Colonial Bengal
Hugh B. Urban
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Songs of Ecstasy: Tantric and Devotional Songs from Colonial Bengal
ASIN: 019513902X |
Book Description
This is a study of the Bengali Kartabhaja sect and its place in the broader movement of Tantrism, an Indian religious movement employing purposely shocking sexual language and rituals. Urban looks closely at the relationship between the rise of the Kartabhajas, who flourished at the turn of the 19th century, and the changing economic context of colonial Bengal. Made up of the poor lower classes laboring in the marketplaces and factories of Calcutta, the Kartabhajas represent "the underworld of the imperial city." Urban shows that their esoteric poetry and songs are in fact saturated with the language of the marketplace and the bazaar, which becomes for them the key metaphor used to communicate secret knowledge and mystical teachings.
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Masquerades of Modernity: Power and Secrecy in Casamance, Senegal
Ferdinand De Jong
Manufacturer: Not Avail
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ASIN: 0253351723 |
Amazon.com
Former FBI "black bag man," William Turner lays the Kennedy assassinations at the foot of agencies of the U.S. government. Despite the conspiracy theories, this is a compelling first-person narrative on the practices of Hoover's FBI. --David Marshall Nissman, J.D.
Book Description
In Rearview Mirror, investigative journalist William Turner revisits the significant stories and inquiries of his illustrious career, which encompasses many of the major political events of the last half of the twentieth century. In these explosive memoirs, Turner ferrets out the truth and shoots down the myths and lies promulgated not only about known events such as Hoover's FBI, the assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs and Watergate, but about unknown events such as the Farewell America plot and the stealth war against Cuba.
William Turner began his career as an FBI special agent in 1951, and for ten years was schooled in the art of criminal and counterespionage investigations, pulling off illegal burglaries and garnering accolades from Hoover along the way. Eventually, however, he became disenchanted with Hoover's despotism, his misplaced focus on the Communist menace and his reluctance to tackle organized crime. When Turner decided to leave the FBI, he exchanged his revolver for a typewriter and wrote the classic expose Hoover's FBI, which made the Director seethe.
He became interested in the investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy immediately after the shooting, when he went to Dallas on assignment. His inquiries led him to write critically of the Warren Commission Report and to work with New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison to reopen the case.
He subsequently became senior editor of the radical magazine Ramparts, which published eye-opening articles he wrote about the FBI, the CIA and the police establishment, including investigations of COINTELPRO and Operation CHAOS, which revealed abuses perpetrated by agencies of the government behind a veneer of legality and propriety.
In Rearview Mirror, Turner chronicles these and other pivotal events surrounding the Bay of Pigs invasion, the secret war against Cuba and the assassination of Robert Kennedy with great compassion, extensive detail and an eye to the truth:
How Hoover's FBI created myths with lies and safeguarded its image via unscrupulous tactics of intimidation and character assassination
Pervasive wiretapping and bugging abuses by the FBI
Operation CHAOS, the CIA-orchestrated burglaries of Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers union and the Ramparts editorial offices after the magazine exposed Agency infiltration of American institutions
Suppressed information about the group that surrounded Sirhan Sirhan, hypnotically making him a "Manchurian Candidate," as well as forensic analysis of gunfire and trajectories that force other conclusions than the court's that Sirhan Sirhan was the lone gunman
The theory proposed by the suppressed book, Farewell America, that JFK was killed by an amalgam of powerful public and private interests who feared the makings of a Kennedy dynasty
The findings of investigations by Jim Garrison, which substantiate a conspiracy theory linking JFK's assassination to the CIA's involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Pervasive CIA and FBI manipulation of the media to discredit critics and sway public opinion.
"Breakout": the story of Joel Kaplan's frame-up by the CIA with complicity by the Mexican police and the amazing story of his escape.
The stealth war against Cuba and plans for a second invasion.
The identity of Watergate's "Deep Throat"
Customer Reviews:
A Fascinating Read.......2001-08-19
I have no idea of William Turner's age, but would guess it to be at least 75. His new memoir, REARVIEW MIRROR, is a fascinating read on a life which spans his early years as an FBI wiretapper and black bagman (he makes clear the activities were illegal), his coverage of the JFK and RFK assassinations, the Garrison investigation and Shaw trial, his Ramparts investigations and his ultimate tour de force (with Hinckle) on the CIA and the Cubans, DEADLY SECRETS.
Had Turner completed his clear-eyed analysis of only one of these historical headliners he would have a secure place in contemporary history. That he was around for all of them (even providing, as a bonus, an excellent snapshot of contemporary Miami madness in his coverage of the Elian Gonzalez insanity) and renders them with reason AND that rarest of all sensibilities, a sense of humor, establishes him as one of our most colorful and intelligent observors of contemporary American clandestine culture.
Does Turner ALWAYS get it right? No. But he observes and writes with eyes wide open (he gives Garrison his due, and at the same time notes his many shortcomings). I wish his volume were footnoted, and a bibliography would be nice. But this is a memoir, seemingly precipitated and structured at least in part by Turner's own staggering FBI file, recently acquired. Proof once again that a good first person narrative (with supporting role by the FBI) is sometimes more startling and provocative than any novel or Hollywood Opus. When such a narrative also enlightens us on our own long-lost history, it is priceless.
Turner wears it well.
---"We won't object/ If he calls collect..."
Operative as Journalist.......2001-06-05
I woke up to-day with the clock radio - telling me that William Turner had the exclusive proof, that John Kennedy was killed by the CIA, because he might stop the war in Vietnam. As well as; the fact that, Bobby was killed because, if elected he would investigate the killing of his brother John.
For years I tried to work out why I was so deeply affected by John Kennedy's assasination. Was it really as superficial as, the fact that he was a young and good looking man and that he had a beautiful wife? But now, I know. He was a good person, who was going to do a 'good thing' and stop an escalation of stupidity, that for all 'intents and purposes' culminated in the present President - dumbed down and introspective.
So it's nearly official. Thanks William Turner - for the closure on a subject, that could not be convincing via an Oliver Stone film (i.e. You cannot cite a Hollywood movie as proof in a post-graduate thesis). Good work and at low price; a bargain basement read for an important subject.
Books:
- Conversations with Gorbachev: On Perestroika, the Prague Spring, and the Crossroads of Socialism
- Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences
- Cross-Border Warriors: Canadians in American Forces, Americans in Canadian Forces : From the Civil War to the Gulf
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan: The Intellectual in Public Life (Woodrow Wilson Center Press)
- Day Lincoln Was Shot
- Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959 (Give 'em Hell Harry Series)
- Death at Dartmoor (Robin Paige Victorian 8)
- Diamond Dust: Stories
- El ano terrible. Hombres y hechos de su tiempo. Latorre, Santos, Tajes
- Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience (Society and the Sexes in the Modern Worl)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Case Against the Fed
- How to Handle Difficult Parents: A Teacher's Survival Guide
- Bedroom DJ
- CNBC Creating Wealth: An Investor's Guide to Decoding the Market
- CSS Pocket Reference
- Lolita
- History: Fiction or Science
- Current Text 2002: Accounting Standards As of June 1, 2002: General Standards, Volume 1
- Elites, Minorities and Economic Growth
- The Devil's Blind Spot: Tales from the New Century
Conspiracy Nation: The Politics of Paranoia in Postwar America
Empire of Conspiracy: The Culture of Paranoia in Postwar America
The Paranoid Style in American Politics: And Other Essays
The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies
Case Closed
