Customer Reviews

The 70 Greatest Conspiracies Of All Time: History's Biggest Mysteries, Coverups, and Cabals

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

An ideal primer for those who don't have the time to read the vast volume of conspiracy literature. This book will not only introduce you to perennial conspiracy favorites involving JFK, the CIA, UFOs, Marilyn Monroe, and Jim Morrison but also more obscure conspiracies. There's that dead reporter in the bathtub. He was working on something called the Octopus file involving stolen software and arms smuggling. And what about those machines in the polling booth? Are they really counting your vote? There's the "Fighting Quaker" who stopped a cabal of American fascists from overthrowing FDR. Who really did the killings at Jonestown? Is fluoride not a plot to steal our precious bodily fluids but to sell us more candy?

You get a briefing on 70 conspiracies and suggestions for further reading, so, the next time someone at a party begins to go on about their favorite conspiracy (and doesn't everyone have at least one?), you'll be able to look them square in the eye and say, "Well, I have a theory..."

By writing this I'll probably now have a file opened in the CIA database. But hey, stuff 'em. This book is awesome. I dare you to read it and not then be skeptical about everything you see on the TV or read in newspapers (or should they be called "disinformationpapers"). Welcome to the New World Order people; Never has so much been owned, controlled, and covered up by so few.

I admit that I am a cynic and lover of conspiracy theories. Many theories, I believe, are realistic while others are pure manufactured tales. However, who knows what is what and I can't discern which is which without conducting further inspection on my own!

"The 70 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time" is a collection of, you guessed it, 70 short stories with enough fuel to fan the flame of suspicion in your mind. You'll see familiar stories that are well publicized to be potentially real conspiracy cover ups and you'll learn of new ones that you may not have heard of. Regardless, you may well end up keep all doors and windows locked for fear that a secret underground agency may already know you own the knowledge that could upset the world!

The only failing I give the book is that it doesn't go into deep depth with more details on most stories. However, having said that, I know that if they did what I wish they did, I'd be reading a book four times the size of "War and Peace" so that's not the wisest of ideas. I'd like to have seen them cut the book into quarters and make it a four part series, instead. That way, they could really go into deeper depth with each conspiracy.

I'll not list the conspiracies as it will be redundant. My best description of the book is that it is the printed version of what I imagine would be a writing that is crossed between Oliver Stone (JFK movie director) and Chris Carter (X-Files creator). Whether you believe in the theories or not, it certainly is food for thought!

If you're not a parnoid, insomniac already, you will be after reading this fascinating, entertaining book on conspiracies. This book taps into our collective consciousness' current facination with conspiracy theories. From the kooky and bizarre to the chilling and all too believable, the authors examine 60 of the most notorious (and sometimes hilarious) conspiracies ever to come down the pike. Well researched and written in a light, engaging manner, this book will make you think twice before dismissing your crazy Aunt Sally's stories about being abducted by UFOs from another dimension.

If you have the most tepid of intrests in conspiracies, cover-ups , cabals or unexplainable phenomenom this book is for you! It's relatively inexpensive considering its bulk of information and the arduous tasks that must have been endured in order to get this book published. It documents everything from the mysterious death of Princess Diana to the CIA's test program, the lunar landing hoaxes and myrid government side projects that they wouldn't want you to know about. This book is the A-Z of every formidable conspiracy theory in exsistence and is well worth a look, even if only to increase your general knowledge of historical events and look from different perspectives at events. Unlike the tacky, childish writing style employed by most conspiracy writers, Vankin and Whalen look even-handedly at each event in a chronological and easy-to-understand order whilst detailing all the relevant facts and including their own personal sceptisism of information or conspiracies in a mature style. I give my two thumbs up to this amazing book!

Ah here's another book destined to disgust the orthodox thinkers of this world who insist everything is clear-cut out there. If you belong to that caste you need not bother with the book or this review. The rest do read on.
Basically, this book is the musical industry's equivalent of a "best of". While seasoned conspiracy theorists will tell you that there's definately more than 70 conspiracies that need listing this is not the aim of this book.
What it aims at is to serve you with a summary of the top conspiracy material circulating planet earth and poke you on to do the rest of your reading yourself (or should i say the rest of your thinking?).
What you get is a short summary for each of the 70 conspiracy theories listed here. They seem to be well researched too for anyone with a deeper reference to all these theories.
True, most of the stuff being "investigated" here belong to the really glorified conspiracy theories, and, it's very probable you've heard or read them somewhere before: aliens, area 51, mind control programs, JFK, machurian candidates, secret weapons to name but a few.
The writting is very entertaining especially since the authors don't omit to add their own touches of sarcastic scepticism to some of the most extreme theories they involve.
More addvanced students of conspiracy lore (if you want to call it that) will probably not be satisfied here as this book is nothing more than a very dense presemtation of the "facts".
But, if you are just starting to get into this kinda stuff this book is a cool start as it will smoothly and effectively introduce you to the trenchcoated world within your world.
And if some of the theories presented here seem a bit "too far out" for your tastes just remember that "nothing is really as it seems" whether you believe in conspiracy theories or not.
Reality is not monodimensional anyway, and neither is the level of reality that we humans can interfere with.
Or are we humans to start with? But no, i better not get into that one..

Gives an excellent launch-point for further research into nearly any conspiracy you can think of. My only gripe is that I wish they would go a little more in depth in some of the "chapters". Also gives fairly comprehensive background sources for you to get your feet wet with.

John and John also keep personal speculation to a minimum when relating information.

I used to dismiss conspiracy people, but this book made me a believer. Written in an engaging-but not too serious-style, this book avoids the usual raving, poorly organized syntax of most conspiracy books. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, and most of all, it'll scare the hell out of you if you take the time to approach the material with an open mind. After reading this book, you'll never see anyone-or anything-in the same naive way again!!! Question everything!!!

In a word: WOW! This is quite simply the best book out there on the subject of conspiracies. And it often is "out there," in a good way -- the book covers the believable and also the unbelievable, and the authors are clearly having fun with the latter category. But the book treats the plausible theories with due respect. Even better, thewriting is top notch. An X-mas list MUST!

This book is fun, entertaining, informative - I owned the 50, then the 60, now this one. It's a good book to grab when you catch some reference or special on television/movies, and you can get good background information on commonly known conspiracy theories.

The authors add their opinions - but not in a heavy handed way. Rather, they never let you take the theories too seriously, and they try to present many sides when they exist (and debunk them when evidence dictates). A great read that you'll pick up over and over.