A journalist who specializes in conspiracy theories draws on interviews with QAnon converts and victims, as well as psychologists, sociologists, and academics to explain the origin and growth of the movement, its embrace by right-wing media and politicians, and why it is important to understand it rather than mock it.

A riveting tour through the landscape and meaning of modern conspiracy theories, exploring the causes and tenacity of this American malady, from Birthers to Pizzagate and beyond. American society has always been fertile ground for conspiracy theories, but with the election of Donald Trump, previously outlandish ideas suddenly attained legitimacy. Trump himself is a conspiracy enthusiast: from his claim that global warming is a Chinese hoax to the...

Over the last year, as the Covid-19 pandemic spread worldwide, so too did the pro-Trump cabal known as QAnon. Following internet clues from a mysterious figure named "Q" - who has claimed to be a high-level government insider with a Q-level clearance - Will Sommer explains the genesis of QAnon, his experience covering its members online and in the real world, Q's lies and how they are spread, how Q has overshadowed politics, and what the nation must...

"In 1947, during the early years of the Cold War, a field in Roswell, New Mexico was disturbed by a strange crash and smattering of debris. Some say the bodies of extraterrestrial beings were strewn across the ground, that a UFO had crashed there, and that the government was covering up the evidence in a massive conspiracy. But what really happened at Roswell? The infamous "crash from outer space" has become a fixture in our culture, inspiring a surge...

"In January 2021, thousands descended on the U.S. Capitol to aid President Donald Trump in combating a shadowy cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. Two women died that day. They, like the millions of Americans who believe that a mysterious insider known as "Q" is exposing a vast deep-state conspiracy, were members of "pastel QAnon," a subgroup of mostly middle-class educated women that answered the call to "save the children." With Pastels and Pedophiles,...

"This biography of Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society, documents how his idiosyncratic philosophizing infused right-wing politics in America. Edward H. Miller explores every aspect of Welch, detailing his youthful egotism; his innovations in candy-making; his mix of brilliance and incompetence; and the development of his raging political beliefs. The John Birch Society was long seen as occupying the farthest reaches of the political...

"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...