"The Conspiracy Book: A Chronological Journey Through Secret societies and Hidden histories" is a richly illustrated "coffee table book" by John Michael Greer. I read it in a Swedish translation.
I admit that I found it less thrilling than "The Occult Book" by the same author. The color illustrations are excellent (although sometimes irrelevant to the subject-matter), but the presentations are too short. It's evidently difficult to summarize complex history in a few short paragraphs!
Some of the interpretations are also strange. For instance, the Bolsheviks were hardly a "secret society", but a mass movement working under conditions of illegality. And why is the Hell Fire Club treated as completely unproblematic? Isn't there *something* sinister about a bunch of secretive aristocrats exploiting prostitutes while LARP-ing as Satanists? It's also clear from the contents of this volume that the author doesn't believe in conspiracy theories...except about Communists and Nazis!
"The Conspiracy Book" mentions both real conspiracies and groups often regarded as such by conspiracy theorists, but which Greer believes are non-conspiratorial. Carbonari, the Mafia, the KKK, the Fenians, and the Jacobites are examples of the former. The Council on Foreign Relations, the Bohemian Grove and Skull & Bones belong in the latter category. The Illuminati are both! Perhaps ironically, the book contains entries on conspiracy theorists, such as John Robison or the John Birch Society...
It's of course difficult to be exhaustive in a case like this, but I missed entries on the Jesuits and the Assassins. And where are David Icke and QAnon? đž
Each entry comes with tips for further reading. James Billington's "Fire in the Minds of Men" clearly played a huge role in compiling this work, as did books by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke on Nazi occultism, and Robert Alan Goldberg's "Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America".
A good collector's item.
No comments:
Post a Comment