Under the Eye of Power
How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy
1 of 1 copy available
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, the 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 the 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.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
July 11, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593742198
- File size: 340426 KB
- Duration: 11:49:13
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from May 8, 2023
Cultural historian Dickey (Ghostland) argues in this gripping examination of America’s continuing embrace of conspiracy theories that “a paranoia of secret, subversive societies, is not just peripheral to the functioning of democracy, but at its very heart.” Appearing with regularity throughout American history, conspiracy theories “are almost always a carefully controlled and nurtured rhetorical tool to shift and shape what will and won’t be considered ‘American,’ ” according to Dickey. Moreover, popular memory glosses over the enormous number of small-scale conspiracy theories that arose (and sometimes still persist) under the mainstream radar. Dickey chronologically traces the various manifestations of conspiratorial thinking from the pre–Revolutionary War period to the 20th century, examining anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-Labor, anti-Black, anti- (and pro-) slavery conspiracy theories, among others. Turning to the present day, he examines the rise of QAnon and wild theories about the origins of Covid-19. Drawing on the work of philosopher Karl Popper, Dickey sees conspiracy theories as “a secularized version of religion” and argues they must be resisted as part of the struggle for a free and fair democracy. This is a vivid and intriguing recontextualization of a misunderstood aspect of American history.
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