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Conspiracy Theories: The Facts and the Evidence Behind the World's Greatest Cover-Ups
Taking each theory in turn, Conspiracy Theories considers more than 80 conspiracies, examining the evidence and key suspects in an explosive account of the world's secrets. Meticulously researched, it contains fresh revelations on historical conspiracies that won't go away, as well as information on the latest cover-ups.
Brought to life with photographs of the places, people and evidence, this book is your in-depth guide to the grassy knolls and undercover bunkers of a world you were never meant to know existed.
Brought to life with photographs of the places, people and evidence, this book is your in-depth guide to the grassy knolls and undercover bunkers of a world you were never meant to know existed.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
208 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 25, 2018
I really enjoyed this book. The authors have researched a vast number of conspiracies and I like the way the book is laid out; giving an overview of the conspiracy, followed by lists of suspects and facts, before looking at the case from a skeptical angle.
The only issue that I found when reading through was the bias the authors showed towards believing/disbelieving certain conspiracies which coloured the way in which the information was presented. I would have preferred a slightly more impersonal write-up but overall this didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. I know I will dip back into this book over the coming days to re-read some of the theories mentioned here.
The only issue that I found when reading through was the bias the authors showed towards believing/disbelieving certain conspiracies which coloured the way in which the information was presented. I would have preferred a slightly more impersonal write-up but overall this didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book. I know I will dip back into this book over the coming days to re-read some of the theories mentioned here.
April 22, 2021
5 / 5 for ‘Conspiracy Theories’ by David Southwell
Full marks for this fascinating guide to most of the more well known supposed conspiracies of the last few hundred years of world history, as well as some lesser known conspiracies too.
Each conspiracy gets at least a double page spread, a handful of the more famous ones get 3 or 4 pages, and each conspiracy has one main b&w photo.
All of the entries have a complete historical overview, with interesting facts, convincing pieces of evidence, possible culprits with reasons, as well as less probable culprits, and then a final, skeptical point of view. The text is well written with loads of information and an occasional wry sense of humour. The skeptical final comments give us an idea of the authors feelings, but generally we are simply given all of the information and reasons why, and why not, a conspiracy was likely.
I greatly enjoyed this book - not a single wasted page. It was insightful and engrossing and I look forward to reading more non-fiction books by David Southwell.
A few more photos would have been nice, but otherwise this is an excellent book and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in recent history or conspiracies.
5 / 5
Full marks for this fascinating guide to most of the more well known supposed conspiracies of the last few hundred years of world history, as well as some lesser known conspiracies too.
Each conspiracy gets at least a double page spread, a handful of the more famous ones get 3 or 4 pages, and each conspiracy has one main b&w photo.
All of the entries have a complete historical overview, with interesting facts, convincing pieces of evidence, possible culprits with reasons, as well as less probable culprits, and then a final, skeptical point of view. The text is well written with loads of information and an occasional wry sense of humour. The skeptical final comments give us an idea of the authors feelings, but generally we are simply given all of the information and reasons why, and why not, a conspiracy was likely.
I greatly enjoyed this book - not a single wasted page. It was insightful and engrossing and I look forward to reading more non-fiction books by David Southwell.
A few more photos would have been nice, but otherwise this is an excellent book and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in recent history or conspiracies.
5 / 5
June 13, 2019
Absolute trash. I knew it would be, and yet I couldn’t resist. Spoiler alert: George W. Bush is a lizard.
July 24, 2019
Interesting enough reading but several things made me dock points.
As nitpicky as this sounds, The. Format. Issues. Were. Awful. Headers’ and subheaders’ formatting was all mixed up, there were numerous typos and extra hyphens that made it look like someone just copy-pasted the first version into the second, and the text was just too darn small to read comfortably. I’m 18 and had to use granny glasses. Granted, I didn’t sleep well the night before, but still.
And the pages were huge. So the 200-page read took me all day whereas other 200-pagers normally take me an hour and a half. I know that’s not a huge issue but it made it incredibly frustrating at least for me, as someone who loves seeing a bookmark fly through the pages as you get absorbed into other worlds.
This book, which tries to be an encyclopedia, doesn’t go nearly deep enough into a lot of conspiracies. To be fair, they do cover a lot of different theories, but some theories are spread across various sections dozens of pages apart to the point where the page titled “George HW Bush” really doesn’t make a point except for he’s maybe suspicious. Terrible organization plagues the major theory pages and makes it hard to grasp anything you’ve just read—the timeline is all jumbled around. Part of this might be because the authors try putting only one or two pages per theory. Again, the format gets in the way of engaging storytelling. Or fact telling.
Another issue is that it seemed extremely biased when it came to the Clinton body count and Trump’s possible ties with Russia. To be fair, the latest edition at the time of writing predates the Muller Report, but as such you have to do your own research to really get an idea of what’s up. The Clinton one just seems to gloss over the issue and call anyone who thinks it has credibility a first-class idiot, a startling break from the mostly impartial tone the authors take.
Weirdly enough, the flat earth theory isn’t covered at all, which I think is a pretty big omission considering that it’s making a comeback in some circles. Hollow earth is included, though, if you’re interested in the various species that might live in the hole in the middle. Vaccines causing autism is also worth taking a look at if you’re literally writing the book on this subject, but it’s strangely missing. All in all, two pretty major omissions for the conspiracy buff.
To the authors’ credit, the 9/11 section is handled quite sensitively and what I think is in a tasteful manner. Of course, I was nine months old at the time it happened and don’t remember it at all, so those who do remember may disagree.
Overall, I did learn some neat stuff (the pages on Rasputin were cool, I had no idea Hollow Earth was a thing, and the Space Nazi theory made me laugh out loud) but I wouldn’t really recommend this as light reading. Has potential, but ultimately didn’t live up to my expectations. At least it was in the bargain bin.
As nitpicky as this sounds, The. Format. Issues. Were. Awful. Headers’ and subheaders’ formatting was all mixed up, there were numerous typos and extra hyphens that made it look like someone just copy-pasted the first version into the second, and the text was just too darn small to read comfortably. I’m 18 and had to use granny glasses. Granted, I didn’t sleep well the night before, but still.
And the pages were huge. So the 200-page read took me all day whereas other 200-pagers normally take me an hour and a half. I know that’s not a huge issue but it made it incredibly frustrating at least for me, as someone who loves seeing a bookmark fly through the pages as you get absorbed into other worlds.
This book, which tries to be an encyclopedia, doesn’t go nearly deep enough into a lot of conspiracies. To be fair, they do cover a lot of different theories, but some theories are spread across various sections dozens of pages apart to the point where the page titled “George HW Bush” really doesn’t make a point except for he’s maybe suspicious. Terrible organization plagues the major theory pages and makes it hard to grasp anything you’ve just read—the timeline is all jumbled around. Part of this might be because the authors try putting only one or two pages per theory. Again, the format gets in the way of engaging storytelling. Or fact telling.
Another issue is that it seemed extremely biased when it came to the Clinton body count and Trump’s possible ties with Russia. To be fair, the latest edition at the time of writing predates the Muller Report, but as such you have to do your own research to really get an idea of what’s up. The Clinton one just seems to gloss over the issue and call anyone who thinks it has credibility a first-class idiot, a startling break from the mostly impartial tone the authors take.
Weirdly enough, the flat earth theory isn’t covered at all, which I think is a pretty big omission considering that it’s making a comeback in some circles. Hollow earth is included, though, if you’re interested in the various species that might live in the hole in the middle. Vaccines causing autism is also worth taking a look at if you’re literally writing the book on this subject, but it’s strangely missing. All in all, two pretty major omissions for the conspiracy buff.
To the authors’ credit, the 9/11 section is handled quite sensitively and what I think is in a tasteful manner. Of course, I was nine months old at the time it happened and don’t remember it at all, so those who do remember may disagree.
Overall, I did learn some neat stuff (the pages on Rasputin were cool, I had no idea Hollow Earth was a thing, and the Space Nazi theory made me laugh out loud) but I wouldn’t really recommend this as light reading. Has potential, but ultimately didn’t live up to my expectations. At least it was in the bargain bin.
September 17, 2019
The world's greatest conspiracy theories are reviewed, rehashed, and regurgitated - all rather weakly. Oh, there's plenty to go through in this book from JFK's assassination to Roswell to Elvis to secret societies, and so on. It's just that there's not much substance to any of the information in the 1-3 pages that the authors spend dissecting each of the various theories. Kind of like looking at that big bag of potato chips when you're really hungry, scarfing half of the bag down, and then coming away feeling really empty. Oddly (or maybe not), in about half of the stories, the "suspects" behind the conspiracies seem to be either Freemasons, aliens, the CIA, the US military, or the Mafia.
Move along: not much to see here.
Move along: not much to see here.
December 31, 2018
A superficial take on many targets of conspiracy theories, giving each "explanation" a paragraph or two, before finishing each topic with an unimpressive section they call Sceptically Speaking that attempts to give the authors an excuse for entertaining even the most far-fetched of theories.
This book gives no answers to the questions it itself raises or refutations even to the most insane theories. It is at best a birds eye-view introduction to the conspiracy theories surrounding "disputed" events.
This book gives no answers to the questions it itself raises or refutations even to the most insane theories. It is at best a birds eye-view introduction to the conspiracy theories surrounding "disputed" events.
November 14, 2018
Frustratingly brief, especially as much is new to me. It made the book slow progress as I was forever stopping to google something. Even when it does touch on something I’ve known a little about, it does it in an uninteresting way and did not mentioning anything I’d already heard of that was interesting/sinister/curious about the event. But I still really enjoyed reading it. I’ve realised this is like and encyclopaedia. Barest bones to get you going and then do your own research.
May 25, 2022
Brief descriptions of the latest (and greatest) conspiracies. I do like that the author has an outline that he follows: brief synopsis of what the conspiracy is; what is weird; the usual suspects; the unusual suspects; convincing evidence and finally skepticism.
December 16, 2021
One extra star for having some fun trivia that’s factually backed up and I can whip out at parties. Negative a million stars for whoever proofread this book.
September 28, 2019
This book is really full of ideas and thoughts that can reshape history and the world from being absurdly dumb to Elvis still being alive to supernatural connections in how we live our lives. This book is totally worth a read if you love history and interesting topics!!!
January 26, 2020
Good, light reading in between heavy books. The Authors articulate the theories, the facts, conspiracy theorists beliefs and then sum it all nicely with their view based on all the evidence before them. The Authors also use humour in some of their explanations which is a kick! Enjoy the read.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews