000			03567cam a2200361Ii 4500
001			on1385352528
003			OCoLC
005			20230712150918.0
008			230622s2023 nyu e b 000 0 eng
010			_a 2022035654
040			_aDLC _beng _erda _cFFL _dFFL _dOCO _dFM0 _dACN _dNFG
020			_a9780593299456 _q(hardcover)
020			_a0593299450 _q(hardcover)
035			_a(OCoLC)1385352528
043			_an-us---
092			_a366.0973 _bD551
049			_aNFGA
100	1		_aDickey, Colin, _eauthor. _9212595
245	1	0	_aUnder the eye of power : _bhow fear of secret societies shapes American democracy / _cColin Dickey.
264		1	_a[New York, NY] : _bViking, _c[2023]
264		4	_c©2023
300			_a353 pages ; _c24 cm
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _bn _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _bnc _2rdacarrier
520			_a"From beloved cultural historian and acclaimed author of Ghostland, a history of America's obsession with secret societies and the conspiracies of hidden power The United States was born in paranoia. From the American Revolution (thought by some to be a conspiracy organized by the French) to the Salem witch trials to the Satanic Panic, Illuminati and QAnon, one of the most enduring narratives that defines the United States is simply this: secret groups are conspiring to pervert the will of the people and the rule of law. We'd like to assume these panics exist only at the fringes of society, or are unique features of an internet age. But history tells us, in fact, that they are woven into the fabric of American democracy. Cultural historian Colin Dickey has built a career studying how our most irrational beliefs reach the mainstream, why, and what they tell us about ourselves. In Under the Eye of Power, Dickey charts the history of America through its paranoias and fears of secret societies, while seeking to explain why so many people-including some of the most powerful people in the country-continue to subscribe to these conspiracy theories. Paradoxically, he finds, belief in the fantastical and conspiratorial can be more soothing than what we fear the most: the chaos and randomness of history, the rising and falling of fortunes in America, and the messiness of democracy. Only in seeing the cycle of this history, Dickey says, can we break it"-- _cProvided by publisher.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 331-353).
505	0		_aIntroduction: The paranoid republic -- Part One: As above, so below -- The arch and the cenotaph -- The craft -- The dreadful fire -- "There is something earnest in all this, but the object is concealed" -- Part Two: Deep-laid schemes -- Mysteries of iniquity -- "Do not open your lips" -- In the convent's crypt -- Fresh from the loins of the people -- A piece of machinery, so to speak -- The mystic red -- Part Three: National indigestion -- Abraham Lincoln's secret confidant -- The man who threw the bomb -- A matter of trusts -- The world's enigma -- The (in)visible empire -- Part Four: Wonders of the invisible world -- Subliminals -- Truth drugs -- Purity of essence -- Beware the Siberian beetle -- Part five: Behind the hieroglyphic streets -- Networks -- The suburban uncanny -- Attack of the lizard people! -- The banality of evil -- Nothing is true, everything is permitted -- Epilogue: Citizens' commissions.
650		0	_aSecret societies _zUnited States _xHistory.
650		0	_aConspiracy theories _zUnited States _xHistory. _9228055
651		0	_aUnited States _xHistory. _924187
994			_aC0 _bNFG
999			_c369034 _d369034