Topic

Reading

Introduction: Defining "Conspiracy Theory"

Paranoia for Fun and Profit in Recent American Culture

•Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays, Chap. 1
•Goldberg, Enemies Within, Chaps. 1,3,5,7
•Peter Knight, ed., Conspiracy Nation, chaps. 2 & 3 (reserve)
• Pasley, "Conspiracy Theory and American Exceptionalism from the Revolution to Roswell"(web)
•begin reading Fenster, Conspiracy Theories

The War of the Worlds and the World Between the Wars: The 1930s Beginnings of Modern Paranoia

•David B. Davis, ed., The Fear of Conspiracy (reserve), pp. 249-89
•Schultz, ed., Fear Itself, pp. 313-25 (reserve)
•NEW Gen. Smedley D. Butler, Testimony before House Special Committee on Un-American Activities, pp. 8-20
•NEW Listen to speech by Father Charles Coughlin
•NEW Gen. Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket

Reds, Red Scares, and the Rise of the National Security State

•Goldberg, Enemies Within, Ch. 2
•David B. Davis, ed., The Fear of Conspiracy (reserve), pp. 289-341
•Schultz, ed., Fear Itself, pp. 253-300 (reserve)
•Hofstadter, Paranoid Style in American Politics, Chaps. 2-4

Enemies and Friends and Enemies from Space: UFOs and Aliens in Postwar American Culture 

•Goldberg, Enemies Within, Ch. 6
•Schultz, ed., Fear Itself, pp. 411-29 (reserve)

JFK: The Assassination in Context
JFK: History of the Conspiracy Theories

•Posner, Case Closed
•Davis, ed., Fear of Conspiracy (reserve), pp.341-54
•Goldberg, Enemies Within, Ch. 4
•Calvin Trillin, "The Buffs"