|
|
|
Average Customer Review
Share your thoughts with other customers
|
|
|
The most helpful favourable review
The most helpful critical review
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Honest and intelligent, backed up by some real research
In this book, Aaronovitch looks into why many otherwise sane and rational people buy into the more outlandish conspiracy theories which litter modern social history, from the fraudulent and rabidly anti-semitic 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion,' manufactured in order to justify the persecution of Jewish people, to the '9/11 was an inside job' fantasists with their...
Published 3 months ago by Archer Books
|
› See more 5 star, 4 star reviews |
 |
11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Job Half Done
Much of this book is interesting and amusing.
However the author fails properly address the most interesting questions arising from this topic.
Mr Aaronovitch does a pretty good job of debunking a series of conspiracy theories. He does so with both wit and intellectual rigour. His guide to the way in which some of the "respected" writers in this...
Published 4 months ago by H. meiehofer
|
› See more 3 star, 2 star, 1 star reviews |
|
|
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Honest and intelligent, backed up by some real research, 13 Aug 2009
In this book, Aaronovitch looks into why many otherwise sane and rational people buy into the more outlandish conspiracy theories which litter modern social history, from the fraudulent and rabidly anti-semitic 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion,' manufactured in order to justify the persecution of Jewish people, to the '9/11 was an inside job' fantasists with their fraudulent pseudo-science and often dangerously anti-semitic propagandist agenda.
Others examined, in no particular order, are:
- the Stalinist show trials of the 1930s, where every failure of the Soviet industrial system was scapegoated onto 'conspiracists' singled out for persecution
- the conspiracy manufactured by right-wing 'America First' elements in the USA to discredit FDR by fraudulently claiming him 'responsible' for the Pearl Harbor attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy in December 1941 (it turns out that the IJN was apparently not let in on FDR's 'conspiracy', but carried out the attack because they thought they could sink US battleships)
- the Senator McCarthy witch-hunts in the 1950s against largely non-existent communists allegedly trying to wreck the USA from within
- attempts to 'conspiracise' the deaths of JFK, Marilyn Munro and Diana POW
- the highly profitable and surprisingly durable fantasy perpetrated by Baigent, Leigh et al about the alleged bloodline of Christ surviving through the Merovingians and the Templars up to modern times, side-tracking into the theories of such diverse and successful alternative-history authors as Erich Von Daniken and Graham Hancock
- the death of Hilda Murrell, finally proven beyond doubt to be murdered randomly by a local deranged criminal psychotic but at the time publicly 'conspiracised' by Tam Dalyell and others
- the suicide of Dr. David Kelly, fraudulently and clumsily conspiracised as a 'murder' by a serving Liberal MP Norman Baker
Each conspiracy claim is examined in forensic detail and the conspiracy-theorists' methods dissected and exposed with wit and intelligence. Aaranovitch is a genuinely thorough investigative journalist and has obviously read all the conspiracy books he reviews and attended conspiracists' meetings. He understands his source material, and has done his research.
The mechanism of conspiracy-theory generation is analysed with insightful and occasionally hilarious detail. A common list of components includes the citing of historical precedent ('there were conspiracies before in history, so therefore this must be one too'), frequent adoption of supporting pseudo-science, the weak and lazy 'we're just asking questions' line and a determination to ignore any and all evidence which demonstrates the theory to be wrong. Oh, and conspiracy-believers often claim to be 'under surveillance' to add spice to their otherwise small and humdrum lives.
In attempting to explain why otherwise sane and rational people choose to adopt a conspiracy-theory belief system, Aaronovitch has an interesting theory rather too detailed to explain in a short review. In brief, he demonstrates that throughout history conspiracy-theorists are generally found to be losers; those whose political views have often been marginalised or defeated by the mainstream and find comfort in adopting a belief-system that 'they' are somehow responsible for the failures and misfortunes. It is comforting to believe that Those Who Have Power are secretly controlling the world, and that you are part of a small select band of heroes who 'knows.' Some people find a narrative of intention and design comforting, and cannot accept the random and accidental element responsible for most of history's major events.
How comforting to believe, like some mediaeval peasant, that 'They' - the secret government, the Intels, the Jews, the bankers, or whoever - control everything and pull the strings, that you are privy to this secret knowledge and understanding, and superior to those who do not understand the conspiracy as you do. You can justify your own miserable failures because 'They' are plotting against you, and you can't win.
Even if you have no interest in conspiracy-theory belief systems and their propagation to the ignorant and the gullible, I recommend this book as a good read: it's excellently written, witty, dispassionate and thought-provoking, and a fine and original analysis of an interesting modern phenomenon.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
A cry for common sense, 24 May 2009
Very simply, this the basis of this book is a number of alleged conspiracies. These include the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, US involvement in the attack on Pearl Harbour, secret service involvement in the killings of JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana and others, and US and Israeli involvement in 9/11.
Aaronovitch describes how the conspiracy theories arose, how they were propogated and evidence which finally debunks each of them in turn. He also goes further in examining the long term, frequently disastrous effects of belief in the specious conspiracies (particularly the Protocols) and also how adherents frequently continue to cling to their beliefs often long after they have been discredited, employing frightening Looking Glass logic that the weight of opposition is proof of veracity.
Overall the book is a plea for rationality and enlightenment over woolly thinking and credulity. One highly amusing but slightly unsettling chapter deals with Christ's bloodline where we find the exponents stating that in order to prove their theories they need to go beyond normal scholarship. Sounds good ? Nope its just means that the application of rigourous analysis makes their house of cards come tumbling down..
The book is not as some (and some reviews) have claimed a call for total belief in the word of government and unquestioning acceptanve of what we are told. It is precisely the opposite of those things, it is a call to examine all evidence with a genuinely open and rigourously analytical mind.
Overall the book is excellent, easily readable, intelligent, thought provoking and highly entertaining.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
39 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
Mind opening, 7 May 2009
At one time I was a firm believer in the conspiracy theory of John F. Kennedy's assassination. But then new facts emerged, the ballistic evidence fell into its correct perspective, and it turned out that Oswald had fired all the shots after all. I then had to go through the strange, and strangely pleasurable, sensation of opening my mind and allowing myself to let go of a long-held opinion. In this book David Aaronovitch covers not only the Kennedy case, but a wide range of other conspiracy scenarios, debunking them with wit, intelligence and a refreshing dose of common sense, allowing innumerable readers the opportunity to experience that same pleasurable sense of opening their minds and letting go of long cherished `facts'. Voodoo Histories provides the tools for us to cut through the half truths, fantasies and wish fulfillment that lie behind the majority of conspiracy theories, and as a bonus it explores the question of why we feel the need to have conspiracy theories at all. On top of which, it is extremely well written. Very highly recommended.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
33 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
Some Common Sense, 8 May 2009
Aaronovitch doesn't provide an exhaustive list of conspiracy theories; instead he illustrates his point by looking at some of the some of the biggies, starting with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, all the way to the suspicions surrounding the death of UN weapons inspector David Kelly. In a sensible, logical manner (and with a fair dose of humour), the author prises off the lid off each conspiracy, pointing out the places where coherent and plausible theories are lacking. An interesting counterpoint to the many shrill and less coherent works on the subject.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Job Half Done, 10 Jul 2009
Much of this book is interesting and amusing.
However the author fails properly address the most interesting questions arising from this topic.
Mr Aaronovitch does a pretty good job of debunking a series of conspiracy theories. He does so with both wit and intellectual rigour. His guide to the way in which some of the "respected" writers in this arena use false logic and "cross fertilise" by always citing their pals and then in turn are cited by them, is invaluable.
But there is a bit missing. Why do these theories arise.
Clearly some like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion have an instrumental purpose to justify anti-semitism. Stalin's paranoid fantasies about his lieutenants being closet Trotskyites pplotting gaainst him did serve some political purpose in enabling him to retain power through fear.
But what of theories like MI6 killing Diana. Although terribly implausible nonetheless they enjoy great popular currency. Sometimes such thories arise during a time of great political division; but Britain in 1997 can hardly be described thus.
Might it not be that some of these theories gain credibility because people are all too willing to belive that "they" (Government, Establishment or what have you) are all too willing to do the most awful things. Perhaps Mr Aaronovitch's journey from Marxism to Blairism has blinded him to this.
It could be argued that the more outre conspiracy theories suit the purposes of the authorities; the more such bizarre theories exist the less likely that real "dirty tricks" will be believed even when exposed.
Havind said this, the book is an entertaining read and it is good to see some proper ripostes being delivered towards some of the nonsense floating around.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
An interesting book, as far as it goes, 10 Sep 2009
Aaronovitch has written a useful summary of a number of conspiracy theories which are well known to the general public; Diana, JFK, 9/11 etc. he's also laid out some, though by no means all, of the debunking evidence. But really that's as far as he's gone. The subtitle of the book is 'The Role of the Conspiricy Theory in Shaping Modern History'. So, readers would expect an analysis of how history has been shaped and what effects this has had on government policy, public opinion and the discussion of history itself. Instead all we get is a few vague statistics on how many people believed a particular theory a few years after the event. Honestly, if you have access to any internet encyclopaedia you're probably wasting your money.
I was also disappointed that he dismissed (rightly) the Holy Blood and Holy Grail ideas but didn't use the same analysis on Christianity as a whole. There is as little evidence for the existance of Jesus as there is for a survival of this particular bloodline.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Conspiracy theories: why we so desperately need them!, 15 Jul 2009
Conspiracy theory not only makes compelling reading, it is also great fodder for television and films such as Oliver Stone's JFK, the 9/11 documentary Loose Change and the cinematic adaptation of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.
Entertaining as conspiracy theories often are, David Aaronovitch's debunking of them, and in particular his attempt to get to the core of why conspiracy theories evolve in the first place and why so many people choose to believe in them, are even more compelling.
Inevitably conspiracy theories are rarely based on facts. For example there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that Lee Harvey Oswald was not John F. Kennedy's lone killer. There is no basis for Jim Garrison's (played by Kevin Costner in JFK) suggestion that only a magic bullet magic from Oswald's rifle could have caused the damage it did. Ex-marine Lee Harvey Oswald was a very competent shot and the presidential cortege drove along Oswald's line of sight, not across it, which means - as many ballistic experts have demonstrated - that the shots were possible.
In 1982 Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh published The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. The main claim of the book is that a secret society, the Priory of Sion, protects the Merovingian bloodline: descendents of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. This claim was based on the authors' discovery of one crucial document known as the Dossiers Secrets suggesting that living descendants of the extinct Merovingian bloodline exist.
The problem with the Dossiers Secrets is that it is pure fabrication, a hoax planted in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris by the charlatan Pierre Plantard in the 1960s. If the document is false, there is no Priory of Sion, and sadly no `Sang Real' (royal blood) either. But surely, revisionists would argue, it is possible that Jesus had a child? There is no evidence for this, but of course it is possible. And if it is possible, is it then not possible too that there is a descendant of Jesus living amongst us today?
Let us just contemplate this single-descendant theory for a minute. So Jesus had a child. That child would have had to produce a boy or a girl for the bloodline to continue. The child of that boy or girl would likewise have had to produce either a boy or girl, and so on and so forth for several hundred generations. Now, what if somewhere along this line someone had had not one but four children, or worse, if multiple generations of Jesus-stock had multiple children...? Then we would end up with an awful lot of Jesus-bloodlines, an awful lot of Jesus-cousins, half-cousins etc.
What makes Aaronvitch's account stand out is its analysis of why conspiracy theories develop. It is now a historical fact that the communist threat perceived by Joseph McCarthy et al in the 1950s was by and large a concoction, that is to say it was a conspiracy theory. Interestingly, those who spread the red scare were the very same people who had been sidelined politically during Roosevelt's presidential reign in the 1930s, typically Republican politicians who had unsuccessfully opposed Roosevelt's New Deal programmes and anti-neutrality policy. More often than not it is `the losers' who propagate conspiracy theories in an attempt to get back at the victors.
It is easy to see why parts of the gun lobby would circulate documents accusing Bill Clinton of having had more than 50 people murdered throughout his career because they stood in his way. It is also easy to see why extreme right-wing groups subscribe to 9/11 conspiracy theories that blame the `government'.
What is much harder to understand is why less radical, intelligent and well educated people - who do not have a political agenda - chose to believe in conspiracy theories. But what kind of world would it be without conspiracy theories, no beautiful (Audrey Tatou) holy descendants walking amongst us, no government-big-business behind the 9/11 attacks? What if the official reports were in fact true and there were no cover-ups? If Princess Diana's car crashed as a result of her intoxicated driver speeding, John F. Kennedy was killed by a sole deranged individual, and Marilyn Monroe died of an overdose?
We would be living in a world governed more by chance than some powerful behind the scenes elite. It would be a world less purposeful, lacking in grander designs. Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy and Princess Diana would all simply be very unlucky, meaningless tragedies. A good conspiracy theory knows how to thrive on the human condition.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
19 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
paranoid histories, 7 May 2009
Forensically researched, elegantly written and laugh out loud funny, this is the book I had been waiting for to parry the many conspiracy theories expounded by otherwise rational, sensible friends and colleagues. When it comes out in paperback I shall keep it in my handbag for speedy reference.
At last I understand the origins of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion but was shocked to discover just how influential they were and they remain. This book really is an eye opener.The way the stories of the conspiracies unfold is compelling but I was also intrigued by Aaronovitch's search for an explanation for why seemingly sane people are so ready to believe in conspiracies when there are much simpler, more obvious explanations readily available. Yes, there's the search for a narrative that makes sense of an otherwise random world, but I did enjoy his description of conspiracy theories as "history for losers," mainly men, though he does balance his scorn with a patient almost sympathetic quest to understand the sources of the conspiracists' need to believe in global plots.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
nothing at all to do with bankers, 9 May 2009
Voodoo Histories does exactly that! it cuts through the mist and haze of gossip, paranoia, fantasies and even public guilt... imagination and half buried conscience, that furnish and ignite so many of the great conspiracy theories. Exactly as it says! why do we feel the need to have conspiracy theories at all? Is something missing in our own lives? Extremely well written. Put it on your book list for 2009.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A commendable book for anyone interested in the topic., 15 Sep 2009
A well written and sagacious dispelling of many large and unsound conspiracy theories. If you want to read a book about this subject, or are interested in some of the conspiracy theories discussed in it, this is definitely the book you should buy. It gives an informative and educational explanation of the history/origins and development of many of the 20th century's major conspiracy theories.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Amazon Home
