Cyberculture Counterconspiracy: A Steamshovel Web Reader, Volume One [Paperback]

Kenn Thomas (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

A Steamshovel Web Reader Volume One, edited by Kenn Thomas. The most notorious conspiracy-minded zine on the newsstand and on the web, Steamshovel Press, presents what the conspiracy doesn’t want the readers to have: Information. Both volumes contain powerful conspiratorial undercurrents of recent times and in history. Never again on the net, with links to help involve the readers themselves in the counterconspiracy. The New Yorker calls it "on the cutting edge —and a strange place that is." Volume One includes Reich and Little Rock, Cord Meyer, book reviews, Gloria Steinem, bugs and bombs, Curtis Lemay, Jenny Randles, Iron Mountain, JFK, Lobster, Monicagate, Starbucks murders, right-wing conspiracy, Octopus, Crewes, Ginsberg, Lisker ’s Birthday, Dr. John, Kerry Thornley, and more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Book Tree (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585091251
• ISBN-13: 978-1585091256
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,010,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kenn Thomas works as a conspiracy writer, a parapolitical researcher, university library archivist, and showrunner for Steamshovel Press, a parapolitical conspiracy cyber presence and magazine. He has written books on the Inslaw affair, co-authoring The Octopus with the late Jim Keith, and on Fred Crisman and the Maury Island Incident.

Thomas has authored over a dozen books on various conspiracy topics. The latest is JFK & UFO, about the possibility that 1947 UFO witness Fred Crisman was connected to the assassination of John F. Kennedy; and The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro, about theInslaw affair. In 2004, Feral House published a new edition of The Octopus, extending the suggestion of connections to the post-9/11 world and al-Qaeda. Feral House also recently published the new book, fully titled JFK & UFO: Military-Industrial Conspiracy and Cover-Up from Maury Island to Dallas.[1]

Thomas calls his research interest "parapolitics," the study of conspiracies of all colors -- from alien abductions and the Illuminati, to the John F. Kennedy assassination and the September 11, 2001 attacks. The New Yorker called his work "on the cutting edge" of conspiracy. His name has become a proverb for a conspiracy theorist; enough so that a baseball almanac described the sport as involving "enough fishy behavior to keep Kenn Thomas swarming for years."[2]

Thomas lectures extensively. He has appeared at Conspiracy Con in San Francisco many years; the Disinfo Con and Media Monotone conferences in New York,; the Crash Retrieval Conference in Las Vegas; the International UFO Conference in Laughlin; the FortFest and Beyond Knowledge conferences in London; even on a Caribbean cruise ship. Most recently he appeared at the Alternative Research Community conference in Bath, England and the All I Want Is The Truth conference in Atlanta, Georgia.



In addition to JFK & UFO, Thomas' writing currently also appears The Casebook on the Men In Black (published by AUP) and Round Trip To Hell In A Flying Saucer (published by Global Communications). His web site, steamshovelpress.com, also makes available a new PDF book entitled Popular Parapolitics and a DVD of his appearance with psychedelic philosopher Timothy Leary, called Cafe Chaos.


1. http://feralhouse.com/jfk-ufo/
2. Baseball Prospectus by Joseph S. Sheehan and Chris Kahrl.
3. Conspiracy Con: Video & Audio:
http://www.conspiracycon.com/audiotapes.html
4. Steamshovel Press: Appearances:
http://www.steamshovelpress.com/appearances1.html
^ Conspiracy Con: Speakers:
http://www.conspiracycon.com/speakers.html

External links

Steamshovel Press (official site): steamshovelpress.com

Kenn Thomas Profile in St. Louis Magazine:
http://www.stlmag.com/St-Louis-Magazine/August-2008/Stalking-the-Octopus/

Nov.22 appearance on Coast To Coast:
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2009/11/22

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Steamshovel's Steaming Farrago of Conspiratorial Connections, July 26, 2001

By 

Stephanie Caruana (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cyberculture Counterconspiracy: A Steamshovel Web Reader, Volume One (Paperback)

Kenn Thomas, redoubtable and prolific writer-editor-publisher of Steamshovel Press and its associated Web site, has done us a tremendous favor. He has downloaded 175 pages of short articles from Steamshovel's web site into a remarkable book. Its best feature is that Kenn has been open to input and argument from many different sides of important questions and issues facing us. They include CIA-funded wars and conflicts, strife and murders, at home and abroad; the possibility of secret germ warfare having been conducted both abroad and here at home; "beatniks", UFO's, mind control; Iron Mountain, hoax or horror; Bill Clinton, Paula Jones, Cord and Mary Pinchot Meyer; Gloria Steinem's stints for the CIA; Gordon Liddy and Larry Flynt on the Gemstone File, and much more. The writers come from the Left, the Right, and the Middle; Democrats, Republicans, Reichians; theorists with varied slants on U.S political assassinations, and from many other points on the compass. They talk, discuss, argue with each other, reminiscent of town hall meetings, or what we used to be able to read in magazines featuring controversy before most of them were wiped out by the simple strategy of raising postal rates to brutal levels back in the '70's.

I am grateful for the opportunity to see these varied discussions in print, in one place, at one time, in paperback form. Crouched over a computer monitor, reading isolated articles appearing over several years' time, one would be hard put to be able to compare or coordinate several articles at once. The cast of characters appearing here are a sort of Vonnegut gonfalon of contemporary culture gathered under the banner of free inquiry; everyone is invited.

This book has been published by the new technology: text stored on a huge computer somewhere; copies printed on demand. It makes for flexible production, with no fear of cartons of unsold books getting dusty somewhere. On the negative side, no table of contents and no index means you are on your own when it comes to finding things.

Still, I highly recommend this book, both for the serious researcher into contemporary culture, and for the casual reader seeking to get his or her feet wet in waters far deeper than the "X-files."