22 November 1963: Dallas, Texas. US President John F Kennedy is assassinated as his motorcade passes through the city's streets. The assassin is soon captured, and revealed to be disaffected Communist sympathizer Lee Harvey Oswald. Did Oswald act alone, or did he have help? Is the Bilderberg Group simply a group of international financiers concerned with promoting democracy throughout the world, or is there a more sinister power at work? And what really happened to Princess Diana's Mercedes one warm August nigh in a Paris underpass? Conspiracy looks at a range of the most interesting theories of this nature, from the risibly far-fetched, such as the belief that the world is run by the lizard people, to the only-too-true and tragic such as the overthrow and murder of Chilean President Salvador Allende.
Master storyteller Brad Meltzer counts down and decodes the world’s top 10 most intriguing conspiracies stories. Wanted: the truth. In a riveting collection, Brad Meltzer guides us through the 10 greatest conspiracies of all time, from Leonardo da Vinci’s stolen prophecy to the Kennedy assassination. This richly illustrated book serves up those fascinating, unexplained questions that nag at history buffs and conspiracy lovers: Why was Hitler so intent on capturing the Roman “Spear of Destiny?” Where did all the Confederacy’s gold go? What is the government hiding in Area 51? And did Lee Harvey Oswald really act alone? Meltzer sifts through the evidence, weighs competing theories, separates what we know to be true and what’s still––and perhaps forever––unproved or unprovable, and in the end, decodes the mystery and arrives at the most likely explanation.
In The 25 Greatest Sports Conspiracy Theories of All Time, long-time TV sports statistician and self-professed skeptic Elliott Kalb examines the most notorious conspiracies in sports history-in baseball and football, the NBA and NHL, the racetrack and the prize ring, and more. Separating fact from myth, Kalb attempts to determine which of these long-held conspiracy theories hold water, and which ones fall flat under scrutiny. Ranking the conspiracies from #1 to #25, he boldly asks: Was Super Bowl III a fixed game? Did baseball avoid integration in the 1930s and 1940s with a secret agreement? Did Sonny Liston throw both of his fights against Muhammad Ali? Was the NBA's first-ever draft lottery fixed? Are some NASCAR race outcomes too good to be true? What really happened at the 1921 Kentucky Derby? Why did Michael Jordan retire from basketball the first time? And much more!
In this book, long-time TV sports statistician and self-professed skeptic Elliot Kalb examines the most notorious conspiracies in sports history-in baseball and football, the NBA and the NHL, the racetrack and the prize ring, and beyond. Separating myth from fact, Kalb attempts to determine which of these long-held conspiracy theories hold water, and which ones fall flat under scrutiny. He thoroughly evaluates conspiracies like the possible fixing of Super Bowl III, Sonny Liston throwing his fights with Muhammad Ali, and why Michael Jordan retired from basketball the first time. In this updated addition, he also includes sections on Spygate, questioning whether or not the Patriots had footage of the Rams walk-through before Super Bowl XXXVI; the 1973 tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King, which Riggs may have thrown; and the controversy surrounding Roger Clemens, who has never failed a drug test, yet seems destined to be hanged with the steroids rope
Fully revised and updated, The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories sorts the myths from the realities, the allegations from the explanations and the paranoid from the probable. Who might be trying to convince us that climate change is or isn't real? What is the truth behind the death of Osama bin Laden and is he still alive? When did the CIA start experimenting with mind control? Where is the HAARP installation and did it have anything to do with the Japanese tsunami disaster? Why is surveillance in our cities and online so widespread and what are the real benefits? This definitive guide to the world's most controversial conspiracies wanders through a maze of sinister secrets, suspicious cover-ups hidden agendas and clandestine operations to explore all these questions - and many many more. Now available in PDF format.
Best-selling author Michael Shermer presents an overarching theory of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them. Nothing happens by accident, everything is connected, and there are no coincidences: that is the essence of conspiratorial thinking. Long a fringe part of the American political landscape, conspiracy theories are now mainstream: 147 members of Congress voted in favor of objections to the 2020 presidential election based on an unproven theory about a rigged electoral process promoted by the mysterious group QAnon. But this is only the latest example in a long history of ideas that include the satanic panics of the 1980s, the New World Order and Vatican conspiracy theories, fears about fluoridated water, speculations about President John F. Kennedy's assassination, and the notions that the Sandy Hook massacre was a false-flag operation and 9/11 was an inside job. In Conspiracy, Michael Shermer presents an overarching review of conspiracy theories—who believes them and why, which ones are real, and what we should do about them. Trust in conspiracy theories, he writes, cuts across gender, age, race, income, education level, occupational status—and even political affiliation. One reason that people believe these conspiracies, Shermer argues, is that enough of them are real that we should be constructively conspiratorial: elections have been rigged (LBJ's 1948 Senate race); medical professionals have intentionally harmed patients in their care (Tuskegee); your government does lie to you (Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Afghanistan); and, tragically, some adults do conspire to sexually abuse children. But Shermer reveals that other factors are also in play: anxiety and a sense of loss of control play a role in conspiratorial cognition patterns, as do certain personality traits. This engaging book will be an important read for anyone concerned about the future direction of American politics, as well as anyone who's watched friends or family fall into patterns of conspiratorial thinking.
Everything you think you know is a lie. Or is it? The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories is the definitive guide to the world's most controversial theories. With updated information on all the most infamous conspiracies, from phony crucifixions to who really did kill JFK, this fully up-dated guide also covers the murders of Alexander Litvinenko and Benasir Bhutto, the London bombings and the Iraq War, as well as the inquest into Princess Diana's death. The guide is a thoroughly researched exploration into this fascinating and, at times, amusing phenomenon, with fascinating discourse and a keen sense of the satirical. For both the believers and the cynics, The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories sorts the myths from the realities.
