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Conspiracy theories (and, from time to time, actual conspiracies) have played a vital role in shaping the course of American history, from the Puritans to the present. Although often dismissed as the delusions of extremists, the possibility of a conspiracy has repeatedly been at center stage in U.S. politics and culture. From the Revolutionary leaders’ suspicions about British plots to the Anti-Masonic Party of the 1830s, and from the anticommunism of the 1950s to the alien abduction narratives of the 1990s, ideas of conspiracy have made a vital contribution, for better or for worse, to the story of U.S.  political life. In short, conspiracy theories are a popular explanation of the workings of power, responsibility, and causality in the unfolding of events. They have appealed to both the Left and the Right, both the uneducated and intellectuals, and have been told both by and about those at the very heart of power. Sometimes they take the form of racist scapegoat, and at others counterattacks on the powerful. They have offered alternative explanations of a vast range of topics, from the economic to the religious, and the political to the cultural.  

They are sometimes without foundation, and at others beyond doubt. Moreover, as many commentators agree, conspiracy theories have long been identified as a peculiarly American obsession.  Although conspiracy theories have always been an important feature of the national scene, in the last few decades they have become astonishingly pervasive in popular culture and politics. Particularly since the political assassinations of the 1960s and the revelations about the illegal activities of the intelligence agencies in the 1970s, many people on the liberal-left have come to see conspiracy as the normal operating procedure of U.S. government.  At the same time, in recent years there has been a revival of right-wing fears about the encroaching influence of federal government and international organizations. A conspiratorial distrust of both the government and those outside the “in group” has been a perennial feature of U.S. politics, but in the last few decades it has become particularly pressing.  Furthermore, the rhetoric of conspiracy has become part of the lingua franca of everyday American life and entertainment, from the cult television series The X-Files to the conspiracy-infused world of the Internet. This encyclopedia puts this recent flourishing into historical perspective.  Despite the pervasiveness of this culture of conspiracy, it is often difficult for scholars, students, and general readers to gain accurate and dispassionate information on both particular episodes and the overall history of U.S. political conspiracy theories.  This encyclopedia is intended to provide a serious and comprehensive summary of all the major events, ideas, and figures of U.S. conspiracy thinking. It includes entries on both actual conspiracies and imagined conspiracies (or as far as historians can with any confidence determine the difference in particular cases). Given that much discussion of conspiracies is often hotly contested and politically charged, the aim of the present volume is to offer a rigorous, clear-sighted, and concise analysis of each issue. It is intended neither to promote nor to dismiss various conspiracy theories (although some of the contributors make clear where they stand); instead, it places each item it in a meaningful context.

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