Conspiracy
A History of Boll*cks Theories, and How Not to Fall for Them
Published on 27. April 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-1-4722-8340-5 (ISBN)
Description
'Uproarious . . . [Phillips and Elledge] pair the abundant good humour of this book with a warning about the corrosive effects of conspiracy theories' The Times
From the Satanic Panic to the anti-vaxx movement, the moon landing to Pizzagate, it's always been human nature to believe we're being lied to by the powers that be (and sometimes, to be fair, we absolutely are).
But while it can be fun to indulge in a bit of Deep State banter on the group chat, recent times have shown us that some of these theories have taken on a life of their own - and in our dogged quest for the truth, it appears we might actually be doing it some damage.
In Conspiracy, Tom Phillips and Jonn Elledge take us on a fascinating, insightful and often hilarious journey through conspiracy theories old and new, to try and answer a vital question for our times: how can we learn to log off the QAnon message boards, and start trusting hard evidence again?
Praise for the Brief History series:
'Witty, entertaining and slightly distressing... You should probably read it' Sarah Knight, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck
'Brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant' Jeremy Clarkson
'Very funny' Mark Watson
'Both readable and entertaining' Telegraph
From the Satanic Panic to the anti-vaxx movement, the moon landing to Pizzagate, it's always been human nature to believe we're being lied to by the powers that be (and sometimes, to be fair, we absolutely are).
But while it can be fun to indulge in a bit of Deep State banter on the group chat, recent times have shown us that some of these theories have taken on a life of their own - and in our dogged quest for the truth, it appears we might actually be doing it some damage.
In Conspiracy, Tom Phillips and Jonn Elledge take us on a fascinating, insightful and often hilarious journey through conspiracy theories old and new, to try and answer a vital question for our times: how can we learn to log off the QAnon message boards, and start trusting hard evidence again?
Praise for the Brief History series:
'Witty, entertaining and slightly distressing... You should probably read it' Sarah Knight, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck
'Brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant' Jeremy Clarkson
'Very funny' Mark Watson
'Both readable and entertaining' Telegraph
Reviews / Votes
For Tom Phillips and HUMANS: In dark times, it's reassuring to learn that we've always been a bunch of clueless f*cking nitwits -- Stuart Heritage * Don't Be a Dick, Pete * A light-touch history of moments when humans have got it spectacularly wrong... Both readable and entertaining * Telegraph * If you find yourself looking at the news and wondering how humanity has got so many things wrong, over and over again, this book is a very funny answer to just that question' -- Mark Watson, comedianMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Headline Publishing Group
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 194 mm
Width: 125 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
272 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4722-8340-5 (9781472283405)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2022
Wildfire
€5.49
Available for download
Persons
Tom Phillips is an author and journalist. He's worked as the editor of Full Fact and editorial director of BuzzFeed UK. The four books in Tom's internationally bestselling Brief History series have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Tom lives in Cornwall with an exponentially growing number of spider plants. Jonn Elledge is a New Statesman and New World columnist, a regular on the podcasts Oh God, What Now? and the late, lamented Paper Cuts, and a frequent contributor to The i Paper, the Guardian and assorted other publications. He was previously an assistant editor at the New Statesman, where he created and ran its urbanism-focused CityMetric site, spending six happy years writing about cities, maps and borders and hosting the Skylines podcast. He has written three books, including the number-one bestseller A History of the World in 47 Borders, as well as over 200 editions of the Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything. He lives in London, with the best dog in the world.