Historical Evolution of Conspiracy Theories in the West

Review of Daniel Pipes, Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It Comes From. New York: Free Press, 1997. Paperback: ISBN 0684871114, 258 pages, $17.00.

Conspiracy offers a compelling analysis and in-depth survey of conspiracy theories since the advent of the modern period in the 18th century. The book, however, operates under two assertions that distort its overall political impact and historical perspective.

The first shortcoming of the book is foundational, deriving from Pipes’ very definition of conspiracy theories. “A conspiracy theory is the fear of a nonexistent conspiracy” (p. 21). This definition is counter-productive since it contradicts the very definition of theory as a concept or formulation awaiting verification. Further, Pipes does not restrict himself to describing theories that have been thoroughly discredited, such as anti-Semitic claims of a Jewish secret hegemony. He also discusses theories whose truth claims cannot be so easily dismissed, such as the CIA’s involvement in drug trafficking. This flaw undermines the political impact of the book.

The other shortcoming in Pipes’ work is historical. It involves his thesis that global conspiracy theories (theories that posit the existence of a secret group determined to take over the world) are a product of the modern period. Pipes asserts that, prior to the late 18th century, conspiracy theories were predominately local in scope (p. 22). “One might say that just as the European philosophical tradition consists of a series of footnotes to Plato, its tradition of world conspiracy theories consists of footnotes to the Enlightenment” (p. 66). This assertion, which grounds the concept of a world conspiracy theory in the modern period, cannot stand up to historical evidence, in particular the huge body of millenarian discourse that predates the 18th century, a body of work premised on the existence of a satanic plot for world domination. Furthermore, in the period prior to the 18th century and prior to emerging concepts of nationalism, it is not possible to claim outright that conspiracy theories are not global in their implications.

What saves the book and testifies to its enduring value in the theory of conspiracism is the scholarship it offers. Although the basic assertions of this text impair its overall historical perspective, Pipes nonetheless succeeds in providing an excellent close study of the evolution of conspiracy theories in the West. He is sensitive to the cultural determinants of conspiracism, the factors that shaped and informed this body of thought in different geographical and cultural contexts. Particularly valuable is his lucid survey of two traditions and their merger—“what began as two wholly discrete sets of fears has gradually, irregularly, but steadily merged. Anti-semitic and anti-secret society phobias began an unrelated phenomena with different appeals; over time they became ever more similar” (p. 141).

Another valuable dimension to Pipes’ work is the detailed exploration of what he calls the “distinct patterns of conspiracism” (p. 38). Typical

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structures include a predilection for the obscure, the reluctance to divulge sources, and the tendency to overwhelm the reader with a flood of sources and references (p. 41). Other distinct patterns include a basic irony or inversion, in which apparent friends are really enemies, and apparent enemies are secretly friends. These patterns provide more than the means of labeling spurious from credible arguments—although on this count alone Pipes’ work is useful. These patterns provide insight into the discursive structures of conspiracism and the epistemology they support. Out of the format of prewritten scenarios derive predictable ways of perceiving the world.

So while his political impact and historical perspective are disabled by his larger assertions, Pipes works well on the level of the close reading and the fine-grained historical analysis. On this level, his work advances the study of conspiracy theories and is recommended reading.

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