From the perspective of 2023, Voodoo History, English journalist David Aaronovitch’s interesting but slightly disjointed 2009 critical analysis of conspiracy theory through the lens of historical memory feels a bit quaint. However, he does provide an insightful glimpse of the evolution of misinformation in the first decades of the 21st century and perhaps some of the currents that presaged the later trends we are currently living through.

Curious about the persistence of conspiratorial thinking after encountering a man who believed that the moon landings were faked, Aaronovitch begins a lighthearted exploration of what he calls a “period of fashionable conspiracism,” an endeavor that quickly turns more serious. Hoping to understand the psychology of conspiracy theories, what he defines as “the attribution of deliberate agency to something that is more likely to be accidental or unintended” or “the attribution of secret action to one party that might far more reasonably be explained as the less covert and less complicated action of another,” and what makes them often more engaging to popular culture than actual history, in each chapter he delves chronologically into some of the last centuries most infamous hoaxes and myths.

As Aaronovitch explores in depth such paranoid tales as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the idea that FDR had prior knowledge about Pearl Harbor, the secret bloodline of Jesus as described in Holy Blood, Holy Grail and, of course, 9/11 being an inside job, he searches for some of the commonalities each share and hits on some thought-provoking threads. While I wouldn’t call the work prescient exactly (that would risk falling into the “historian’s fallacy” Aaronvitch describes, “the tendency to forget at the time that the actors in a historical drama simply did not know, at the time, what was coming next”), there was a lot that rang true for me as misinformation has only strengthened its grip on the publication imagination during the 2010s.

In particular, he describes the way that conspiracy theories can be used to aid an authoritarian regime. Aaronovitch’s account of the Kagonovitch trial in 1940s USSR, for instance, in which a prominent bureaucrat in the Stalinist regime was accused of being embroiled in a Trotskyist plot of sabotage, illustrates how conspiracy can become a convenient tool by the authorities by allowing them to explain away their failures on perfidious outside forces. I can see echoes of this in the Pizzagate and Qanon accounts of a deep state being behind the Trump administration’s lack of success.

In addition, the slow evolution of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion from 19th century French anti-Napoleonic literature to antisemitic ur-text through the plagiarism and repurposing of numerous bad faith actors in Germany and Russia, reminded me of the mutation of memes online in the 21st century. On that note, it was interesting to see Aaronovitch’s discussion of the capital-I Internet’s effect on 9/11 conspiracy theories, bringing into orbit strange political bedfellows, and how such drawings together of paranoid ideas across the conspiratorial landscape has only increased as algorithms rewarded engagement regardless of its truth.

It’s in Aaronovitch’s conclusion, I think, where the work's major weaknesses are shown, lacking a strong argument of how our culture may remedy this increasingly sinister situation. As he attempts to brush off such “alternative truths” as merely false assumptions broken by critical thinking, the last decade of mostly unmoderated digital disinformation, is a simplistic hope. In any case, though, Voodoo Histories as a whole is a loose but fascinating collection of essays that provides some valuable information even a decade later. ( )

This was fascinating. I'd never thought of conspiracy theories as shaping history; rather, they have always seem like weird fringe elements. Neat book. ( )

I skimmed some of this, it being a bit academic for me. But the chapters on JFK, 9/11 conspiracy theorists and the Birther movement were super interesting to me. ( )

Really enjoyed this one. Aaronovitch packs a lot of details and research into this book, but it's necessary when he's skewering some of the greatest conspiracy theories of the last 100 years or so.

I picked this one up because I really am one of those people who roll their eyes at the multiple killer theories for JFK, RFK and Marilyn Monroe. I smile indulgently at those that believe Obama was born in Kenya and that 9/11 was an inside job. Telling me the moon landing I watched when I was six years old was all faked will make me laugh.

But I love a good story, so I gobble up movies like JFK and Capricorn One because, for me, it's as much how these people spin up the stories to try and make all the "facts" fit in their convoluted stories.

In this book, the author carefully builds up each theory, citing names, sources, etc, then systematically tears each one back down again. And through it all, I could hear each conspiracy theorist screaming, "YOU FOOL! THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK!" like some ersatz Charlton Heston revealing that Soylent Green is people.

Anyway, I was very much educated by this book while also being entertained by it. You really can't ask for more, can you? ( )

traces varieties of conspiracy theories through history, with an emphasis on anti-semitic and anti-Western-government theories. dryling written and disappointingly, it offers little theory or 'big picture' analysis until the final chapter ( )