VOODOO HISTORIES
THE ROLE OF MODERN CONSPIRACY THEORY IN SHAPING MODERN HISTORY

Voodoo Histories is a unique book. There are plenty of books espousing conspiracy theories and even the occasional book debunking one of them. But Voodoo Histories seeks to place them in their historic context, to understand why they are so attractive, to test their believability and to demonstrate why they can be so dangerous. Looking at the major theories of the last 100 years the book shows what they have in common, and where they differ, critically assessing each one in terms of its structure and psychology.

Voodoo Histories shows how conspiracy theories are the product of the educated classes. Even the most ridiculous forgery – the anti- Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion – was reproduced and believed by scholars and businessmen from Henry Ford in the 1920s to the Hamas leader and pediatrician Abdel-aziz Rantisi (who the author met), in the early 21st century.

The book traces the development of so-called “revisionist history” from theories accusing President Roosevelt of foreknowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor (one of whose advocates has been the novelist Gore Vidal) to Holocaust denial.

It examines the need, when iconic figures such as Kennedy, Monroe or Princess Diana are killed, to construct an overarching explanation that mitigates the pain and anxiety of their loss. It shows what happens when, as in the case of Diana, conspiracy theories actually make it as far as a court of law.

It amuses itself at the expense of “pseudohistory” such as the Holy Blood, Holy Grail genre of faux archaeological works, while asking why people would rather buy into a new mythology than try to understand their own history.

It destroys the ‘reasoning’ and ‘evidence’ of the 9/11 Truth Movement in some detail, and demonstrates the role of the internet in creating new political coalitions devoted to a conspiracist view of the world.

It shows, point by point, how a leading Member of Parliament exemplified the conspiracist mindset by inverting normality and abnormality in an influential book about the death of Dr David Kelly.

Voodoo Histories draws on psychology to suggest that Conspiracy Theories may be ‘hysteria’ for men – a counterpart to the health and food scares that are widely believed, mostly by women. It argues that conspiracy theories have a social function – they form a reassuring defence against indifference. Critically, Voodoo Histories seeks to arm the true sceptic with the tools to combat distortions of history, and is itself a weapon in the War Against Stupidity.

David Aaronovitch is an award-winning journalist, who has worked in radio, television and newspapers in the United Kingdom since the early 1980s. He lives in Hampstead, north London, with his wife and three daughters. His first book, Paddling to Jerusalem, won the Madoc prize for travel literature in 2001.