The Politics of Fear: The Peculiar Persistence of American Paranoia

From the author of Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies, a probing exploration of the bizarre and dangerous conspiracies that have roiled America over the past decade and captured the minds of so many Americans

Among the more disturbing recent trends in politics is the unholy marriage of the Republican Party and virulent conspiracy theories. These theories not only contest the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and the allegiance of American officials, but they also claim that the ship stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021 contained children sex-trafficked for Hillary Clinton and that John F. Kennedy Jr. faked his death and will one day make his return. Who is susceptible to such absurdities, and what makes them so politically potent?

Investigating recent conspiracy theories and their historical forebears, Arthur Goldwag helps us make sense of the senseless. As he dissects these strange beliefs and answers the broader question of why so many Americans have fallen prey to them, three uncomfortable truths emerge: that the theories espoused by Trump have roots as deep in our  heritage as Enlightenment principles, that these right-wing movements and beliefs will outlive the Trump era just as they preceded it, and that the contention that the system is “rigged” is not altogether false. The real question is: For whom is it rigged, and why?

A considered, surprising, and critical examination of America’s paranoid style in the modern era, The Politics of Fear delves into the minds of Americans who hold some of the most absurd, confounding, and dangerous beliefs.