A new one comes out like once a week and they all argue something or other that we as humans are cognitively structured to like conspiracy theories. And in particular the most important conspiracy theory, history book in the history of well, conspiracy theory, history books and it's a lot of books. This is Matthew Lazar and I'm here to talk to you about conspiracy theory, history books. So why don't you watch it and enjoy and thank you. And I think it will be helpful for you in terms of seeing how different historians think about conspiracy theories differently.

Who wrote what is arguably the most important book about conspiracy theories in the United States in the 20th century. And it's a video that I made back when I wore thick glasses and it's about Richard Hofstadter. It was a video that I made for my regular course here at UC Santa cruz on conspiracy theories. It wasn't the video that I made for this online conspiracy course. I'm back and here's a video that I made some about a year ago. What are we to make of these claims? What do they say about our societies? How do they impact history, or reflect larger historical trends? How do we understand the context of these ideas? And how do we understand them in relation to objectively confirmed conspiracies, of which there are at least as many? How do we know when a conspiracy has really happened, and cannot simply be dismissed as a ‘theory’? We will grapple with these questions together through short videos, quizzes that will help you check your understanding of the material, discussion, and a final project in which you will create your own conspiracy theory. Millions of people around the world believe in conspiracy theories like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or that AIDS was deliberately created by governments and pharmaceutical companies, or that on September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center complex was downed not by airplanes, but by a “controlled demolition” masterminded by the United States national security state. This course is for anyone interested in conspiracy theories.

Hofstadter the paranoid style