Hope and Fear

Reviews / Votes

'In Hope and Fear, Ronald H. Fritze takes the reader on an enlightening tour of the sort of minds that latch on to what he calls "malign forms of junk knowledge". The book traces a common link among fans of freaky fantasies, one that stretches from the Nazi cult of the supernatural, through alien-abduction conspiracists and up to the Covid deniers and QAnon embracers of our own mottled age.' * The Independent * When the Queen reached the seventieth anniversary of her accession to the throne recently, very little of the coverage focused on David Icke's theory that Her Majesty is a shape-shifting reptilian alien who, along with other world leaders, is only pretending to be human in order to maintain dominance over us. You and I might think this lack of coverage was just because the theory is a load of rubbish. Icke and his followers would maintain that the lack of evidence for their statement simply shows how cunning reptilian aliens are at hiding the truth. Fritze's exhaustively researched book examines the history of such crazy beliefs and the reasons people are drawn to them . . . If this book prevents even a few people from seeing Roswell's UFO Museum as something more than light-hearted fun, this Fritze may well have a point. * Daily Mail * It is an idea frequently expressed that people need myth to make sense of their own lives and the world around them. Otherwise why would we have worship of non-existent gods, devotion to human leaders sometimes considered divine themselves, or the idea that one's accidental country of birth somehow makes that place superior to others? In Hope and Fear Ronald Fritze investigates such myths, such 'invented knowledge', as he calls it, and does so in a way that manages to be both massively scholarly in its detailed and comprehensive analysis of the phenomena in question, exhilarating, and indeed often entertaining in the reflections and observations it throws off. * Socialist Standard * The breadth of historical research is noteworthy, and there are some fascinating nuggets, such as the involvement of the Koch brothers in the founding of the John Birch Society, and Adolf Hitler's interest in astrology. * Nova Religio * From the "crazy" uncle spouting nonsense at family gatherings to politicians tarring opponents with outlandish crimes, the conspiratorial mindset is everywhere around us. In this remarkable book Ronald H. Fritze shows how conspiracy ideas have evolved over time to serve specific ends, and how they shape our modern world. * Roger D. Launius, former NASA Chief Historian and author of Apollo's Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landings * Already the leading scholar of the subject of pseudo-history, Ronald H. Fritze offers a brilliant account of a range of modern cases, with his important up-to-the-minute examples throwing important light on the vogue for conspiracy theories. Written with wit and clarity. * Jeremy Black, author of The Power of Knowledge: How Information and Technology Made the Modern World * This fascinating book demystifies pseudo-history, myths and conspiracy theories with surgical precision. Hope and Fear gives us a complete understanding of these worldwide phenomena and the reasons why they appear. It will be of great interest not only to scholars but to any person of intellectual integrity who questions the reality in which we live, as well as the reversal of fact and fiction to which we are exposed in our everyday life. * Mirela Altic, Institute of Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia *