Fear of Conspiracy. Images of Un-American Subversion from the Revolution to the Present

by David Brion Davis

First published by Cornell in 1971, The Fear of Conspiracy brings together eighty-five speeches, documents, and writings―the authors of which range from George Washington to Stokely Carmichael―that illustrate the role played in American history by the fear of conspiracy and subversion. This book, documenting two centuries of conspiracy-mongering (1763-1966), highlights the American tendency to search for subversive enemies and to construct terrifying dangers from fragmentary and highly circumstantial evidence.

Genres: Nonfiction, American History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

David Brion Davis was an American historian and authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He was the Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University, and founder and Director Emeritus of Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. He was a foremost intellectual and cultural historian. The author and editor of 17 books, and frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, Davis played a principal role in explaining the latest historiography to a broad audience. His books emphasized religious and ideological links among material conditions, political interests, and new political values.

Reviews

[Lance Polin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of conspiratorial thinking throughout United States history. There is a cross-ideological approach, although most of the worst comes from the hard right. There are a few froth-mouthed communists, and some a bit too paranoid civil rights, not activists, more cheerleaders, ranting.

On the right it is poisonous, apocalyptic terror and hatred against any idea running counter to the sometimes treasonous absolutism infecting people like Joseph McCarthy or John Birch Society founder Robert Welch's minds. They hoot lots of Illuminati/freemason/zionist blather in the disguise of anti-communism. It is all fascinating.

The book is ably compiled and edited, with terrific introductions to each piece, providing historical context. You can't go wrong here if you are interested in the topic.

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great collection of early American essays concerning conspiracy, and the history of the concept in American culture and ideology. The colonial era pieces are really great, because reading them with an understanding of contemporary American history complicates our understanding of the evolution of American attitudes towards conspiracist thinking. Great for period examples to chart the evolution of this topic.