This was incredibly interesting and highlighted the many ways conspiracy theories have thrived and continue to thrive in the US. Timely and well laid out.

Book Reviews: Summer 2023
Pennsylvania Literary Journal
By: Anna Faktorovich
https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-summer-2023/

The Type of Nonsense That Drives Conspiracy-Followers to Murder
Colin Dickey, Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy (New York: Penguin Group: Viking, July 11, 2023). 326pp. ISBN: 978-0-593299-45-6.
**
“From the American Revolution (thought by some to be a conspiracy organized by the French) to the Salem witch trials to the Satanic Panic, the Illuminati, and QAnon, one of the most enduring narratives that defines the United States is simply this: secret groups are conspiring to pervert the will of the people and the rule of law… History tells us, in fact, that they are woven into the fabric of American democracy… The history of America through its paranoias and fears of secret societies, while seeking to explain why so many people—including some of the most powerful people in the country—continue to subscribe to these conspiracy theories. Paradoxically, he finds, belief in the fantastical and conspiratorial can be more soothing than what we fear the most: the chaos and randomness of history, the rising and falling of fortunes in America, and the messiness of democracy. Only in seeing the cycle of this history, Dickey says, can we break it.”
The front-matter regurgitates this blurb in numerous cycles of repetition, as it builds up a frenzy against conspiracy theories in general, with only brief mentions of any specific absurd theories. The first specific section, “One: The Arch and the Cenotaph”, opens with an extremely general description of a “landscape” with a “stone arch”, which is eventually explained as a monument that was repaired with a fundraising campaign by the Freemasons. Dickey narrates his stroll around this arch and his observations, as if he received funding for this trip, and this is his proof he actually went. He focuses on the Eye of Providence emblem the Freemasons engraved during their renovations; Dickey briefly mentions it is a symbol that appears on the dollar bill, before suddenly turning this into a conspiracy of the eye signifying the Freemasons’ “plans for world domination”. The next section digresses about random anonymous slanders cast at Freemasons on sites like 4chan. While the evidence on these sites is as non-specific as what Dickey repeats here, Dickey does point out that this nonsense has generated real arrests by the FBI, such as the arrest in 2016 of a guy who “was planning an attack on the Freemason temple in Milwaukee”. And there was a 2004 attack on a Masonic lodge. At least some of these attackers are “Neo-Nazis”.
Given my own findings regarding the prevalence of ghostwriters (6 in the Renaissance, 10 in the 18th century and 11 in the 19th) who have controlled British history between at least 1550-1899, there are indeed tiny groups of people who have undue influence, but these people are not wasting their time wearing robes and chanting, but rather are busy ghostwriting or otherwise planting influence anonymously. They do not confess their membership in a club, nor have churches where they can be taken out as a group. A ghostwriter can be contracted to create conspiracy theories against power-swaying organizations like Freemasons in order to diverge attention away from the actual players (like himself). The overflow of fake conspiracy theories helps to secure the safety of the real conspirators, who can dismiss accusations against them as “mere conspiracy theories”. This is precisely what Dickey’s book is doing; it is using digressive and fluffy language to create a sense that all conspiracies are nonsensical or threatening, instead of investigating both true and untrue conspiracies and showing how they can be distinguished. There is some sense amidst the nonsense, like the historical explanation that the Eye originated as a symbol referring to the trinity during the Renaissance, and then was adopted by the US Founding Fathers because it had a different meaning referring to “strength and duration”. And there is a note that Freemasons actually adopted this symbol after the Founders, as opposed to before; so the Founders did not intend to put a Freemason symbol in their documents, but rather the Freemasons took advantage of a symbol that already had power as an American symbol. But all these explanations are without citations, and are continuously interrupted with asides, ponderings, and the continuing tour the author is on.
This book is not recommended for researchers who need sources to explain the covered conspiracy theories, as this information is probably easier to find online and in a more approachable format. And those who want to question or find affirmation in conspiracy theories they are questioning will become very frustrated, if they attempt this book, as it will take them on many tours they do not want to be on.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Penguin Group Viking for an advanced copy of this look at American History through the eyes of those who worry about secret societies, great conspiracies, and the effect these thoughts have had on this country and our relations with each other.

Politics might be local but paranoia is personal, and paranoia has had more of an effect on politics than most people would want to admit. Most people are sure that someone is out to get them. Maybe the less egotistical think a group is working to make things better for another group. In a country where keeping up with the Joneses is a mantra for success, keeping an eye on the Joneses is not to far away. Those in control count on this, keeping people divided, always supplying an enemy, someone to blame when things go wrong. It's their fault those Catholics, Jewish, Black, Brown People, those Freemasons, Trekies or even Swifties. My little town is rift with paranoid thoughts about road closings, why are we closing roads, we never close roads, who is paying for this why, when one can easily see the sewer grates are being changed. Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity, as the saying goes. Paranoia is everywhere, but Americans have made it an art form. Not just in creating it, but in believing it. Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy by cultural historian Colin Dickey is a look at American history through the eyes of fear fear of others, societies, neighbors and where this has lead us.

The book begins with a lot of powerful people saying some stupid things, and sadly not ony believing it, but using their clout to make others believe. Slavery seemed to be a big thing that some of the population was afraid of, that slaveowners would take over America, or that slaves would rise up. Later during the American Revolution many thought, and in fact preached that the agitators from France were causing revolutionary fervor and that if Britain sent troops here, the French would just march right into England and take everything. The Freemasons are looked at, as they a group who loves to bask in the fact that many presidents have been Masons, and if one looks one can see a lot of Mason symbols everywhere, and yet get upset when one mentions Masons running things. Masons starter more as a trade union for wage fixing, before growing, so one wonders where the misinformation about Mason came from. Slave groups, religions and others appear, with descriptions of what these groups really were, and why people feared them. CIA, Satanic panic, and finally QAnon round out the book, with other greatest hits from the secret societies playlist.

Reading the book it is amazing this country has stayed together as long as it has. North thinks the worst of the South, the West hates the East, the urban poor blame rural poor for things. Even in the same religion there are different sect that get head shakes and whispers of I know they are a part of our religion, but they are crazy. Colin Dickey does a good job of getting to bottom of a lot of these secret societies, and show they were secret in the ways that few asked questions about them, and that many wanted to pretend to be something more to get members and make money. And it is good to know that money does not make one smarter, or even smarter like Ben Franklin less gullible. Many of the best and brightest believed the dumbest dreck. And being America this continues on, though social media has in many ways made it worse. One might have to track down a copy of Ben Franklin's Plain Truth book for his view on Catholics helping the enemy, today it would be retweeted by people with numbers in their twitter handle.

A very well written history that is doomed to be repeated over and over, no matter what people are told. Dickey has written a very good book about the weird things that we believe. Recommended for people who like different views of history, and attempting to figure out what went wrong in America. Also for writers looking for story ideas, and for people who listen to a lot of podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left. This is perfect reading.

Secret societies - the Illuminati, the Masons, the Lizard People, "slaveocracy," and the John Birch Society are all part of the American Historical landscape. But so are the Ku Klux Klan, witches, slave revolts, the Molly Maguires, Haymarket anarchists, the Satanic ritual scare, and the recovered memory movement. Each of these and others were involved in "moral panics" that swept across America. In Under the Eye of Power, Colin Dickey walks the reader through the conspiratorial-laden underbelly of America.

Colin Dicky begins his meanderings with the Freemasons and its offshoot - the Illuminati in the section As Above, So Below. He spends four chapters dealing with how the Freemasons developed, came to America, how its symbols are everywhere, yet its rituals are secret, so secret that some Masons have murdered a former member to halt their publication. Next stop - Deep-Laid Schemes - has six chapters filled with slave revolts, slave conspiracies, Underground railroads, ant-Catholicism, witchcraft trials in Salem and elsewhere, and in Texas, Abolitionist arsonists! In National Indigestion, Dickey has five chapters with anti-immigrationists, anarchists, bankers, Wall Street, antisemitism, and the (In)Visible Empire. In Wonders of the Invisible World, Dickey, in four chapters, explores subliminal messaging, the CIA and "truth drugs" plus LSD, ant-fluoridation societies (which includes anti-Communist groups such as the John Birch Society), and the FBI COINTELPRO on anti-war and leftist groups. Finally, Dickey, with six chapters in Behind the Hieroglyphic Streets, ventures into cultural wars, modern conspiracy theories, Satanic rituals, recovered memories, Q-Anon, the Lizard People, ritual sacrifices, and Citizen Commissions.

Under the Eye of Power is wonderful for readers interested in American history with all the warts and stains included or for the reader who longs for a primer on all the ways secret societies and conspiracies have played a role in U.S. history.

Thanks Netgalley for the chance to read this title!

I've always appreciated Colin Dickey's nonfiction projects, and this one is no different. His deep(ish) dives into various American conspiracy theories were engaging and informative, and he expertly sketches together why they have such disturbing ramifications for life and the political climate (cough fascism cough) today.

This was a very well-researched book, detailing the history of conspiracy theories in America. I think I personally was looking for a book about more recent conspiracy theories, so the last third of the book appealed to me more than the rest of it. For the earlier chapters, I felt that I would have needed to do some research on my own to know more about what was being discussed. This book is probably best for someone who already knows about early conspiracy theories in American history.