Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 [Hardcover]

Kathryn S. Olmsted (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195183533 | ISBN-13: 978-0195183535 | Publication Date: January 2, 2009

Many Americans believe that their own government is guilty of shocking crimes. Government agents shot the president. They faked the moon landing. They stood by and allowed the murders of 2,400 servicemen in Hawaii. Although paranoia has been a feature of the American scene since the birth of the Republic, in Real Enemies Kathryn Olmsted shows that it was only in the twentieth century that strange and unlikely conspiracy theories became central to American politics. In particular, she posits World War I as a critical turning point and shows that as the federal bureaucracy expanded, Americans grew more fearful of the government itself--the military, the intelligence community, and even the President. Analyzing the wide-spread suspicions surrounding such events as Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, Watergate, and 9/11, Olmsted sheds light on why so many Americans believe that their government conspires against them, why more people believe these theories over time, and how real conspiracies--such as the infamous Northwoods plan--have fueled our paranoia about the governments we ourselves elect.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...exquisitely researched and annotated new book...her compilation presents a startling read of public history."--Chicago Tribune

"...energetic narrative shows an increasingly complex national security apparatus both prompting conspiracy theories and promulgating its own. Convincing study of how alternative histories develop."--Kirkus Reviews

"Though most conspiracy theories are nonsense, Real Enemies demonstrates that actors in and around American government have been engaged in conspiracies against the public interest for decades."--Chronicles

"Real Enemies is a study of paranoia in American politics, and of course, as Kathryn Olmsted shows, the paranoia begins far too often in the Oval Office. Olmsted makes it clear, however, that it didn't start with Richard Nixon or George W. Bush. Political paranoia, it turns out, is as American as political demagoguery."--Seymour M. Hersh, author of Chain of Command

"Kathryn Olmsted has written a brave, provocative, and audacious book. Her willingness to subject the systemic effects of consistent patterns of official government deception--together with the popular conspiracist 'blowback' this deception inspires and empowers--to scholarly scrutiny invites us to ask troubling but necessary questions about the nature of our political leadership."--Eric Alterman, author of When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences

"Once in a while, a talented historian writes a book about a neglected topic that millions of Americans think about all the time. Real Enemies is one of those rare and indispensable studies. With grace and impeccable judgment, Kathryn Olmsted illuminates one of the darker regions of the nation's political history. Richard Hofstadter would be pleased."--Michael Kazin, author of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan

"Although cranks and paranoids imagined far more conspiracies than they could actually prove, Real Enemies illuminates numerous instances where 'trust no one' is whon to be apt.... Though most conspiracy theories are nonsense, Real Enemies demonstrates that actors in and around American government have been engaged in conspiracies against the public interest for decades."--Clark Stooksbury, Chronices

"Provocative and informative Olmsted has an eye for the well-chosen example and is always alert for irony, and her examination of the shift in America's tradition of conspiracy during the twentieth century is both measured and compelling."--Journal of American History

"Careful, mature analysis. Olmsted has written a revealing study of the impact of conspiracy theories on American society and politics."-Geoffrey Wawro, History Book Club

"Far from another tired look at crackpot ideas proffered by the far left or right wingnuts artfully plums the pervasiveness of fringe thinking throughout history."--Utne Reader

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Kathryn S. Olmsted is a professor of history at the University of California, Davis. She has written two previous books on secrecy in the U.S. government.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195183533
• ISBN-13: 978-0195183535
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #374,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The paranoic style of American history, March 24, 2011

By 

Paul Gelman "PAUL Y. GELMAN" (HAIFA , ISRAEL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 (Paperback)

This book analyzes conspiracy theories from World War One to the present and is to a degree an extension of Richard Hofstadter's book on the same topic.As Ms.Olmsted writes, she does not try to psychoanalyze the various theorists and determine which elements in American culture and history led them to become paranoic.
Over the past two hundred years, Americans blamed Catholics, Masons, Mormons and Jews as groups responsible for undermining American democracy and the American people's security, and, in addition, the Americans have been obsessed with this paranoic fear of seeing conspiracies almost everywhere. Ever since the nation's founding, the Americans "have worried that the great instrument of the people's will would be turned against them". In other words, the ones to be blamed were not only minorities but the govenment itself and its components. This last element is the one which characterizes the transformation of conspiracy theories in the twentieth century. Secretive bureaucracies and the institutionalized secrecy of modern US government inspired a new type of conspiracy theories and these, in turn, argued that governent officials lied to citizens, "dragged the peaceable American people into foolish wars, and then spied on and oppressed the opponents of war".
The book contains seven chapters which start with WW1 and the author regards this event as the turning point for the different conspiracy theories. She analyzes in depth the Pearl Harbour attack and the fate of those who were regarded to be conspirators of this infamous acts, and adds new materials on the Cold War period. This era was one of the highlights of American paranoia, because government officials and private citizens saw Reds everywhere, real of imagined, inspired to a great extent by the Joe McCarthy's crudades against real or unreal enemies and subversive forces. One exmple given is that of Linus Pauling, the famous scientist, who was considered a Communist and was denied free movement ouside the US until the time when President Kennedy changed this.
The great master of American security was Edgar J. Hoover, who suspected immense conpiracies everywhere. His fears were augmented by Elizabeth Bentley's revelations about Communist spies who infiltrated the American establishment. The assassination of President Kennedy gave an additional boost to the conspiracy theories which argued that the American goverment was lying to its people because it did not reveal the truth about Kennedy's assassination. This event itself let millions of Americans to search in vain for another truth about the killed President and a whole industry on this-which is still developing-has followed, whereby citizens and researchers, historians, reporters, movie makers and directors took part in the quest to find the real killers or their motivations.
Another chapter has to do with the presidency of Nixon. It was this president who would make conspiracies and their theories central to the American system of governance. Writes Olmsted:
" The Nixon administration tried to restore Americans' fate in the goverment and the "infallibility" of the presidency by proving the fallibility and dishonesty of previous presidents".
By the 1980s,Americans no longer simply suspected that the government was undermining democracy. They were certain that it was guilty of much worse. The revelation of CIA mind control experiments intensified these fears and paranoia and the American public learned of official plots to control behaviour of randomly chosen, ordinary Americans. The MKULTRA programs and the hearing of the Church committeee only fueled these fears, followed by new kinds of conspiracies that included this time alies and UFOs. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, "The X-files" series became a great success showing the one cannot know the exact truth about anything, since the truth is out there".
The last chapter is about conspiracy theories in respect to the 9/11 tragedy.
This book shows to what extent large segments of American society are easily fooled by illusions and paranoic fears which have no real basis. On the other hand, it also questions many facets of American policy regarding the secrecy culture which might be responsible for this kind of style in American history.This book is indispensable reading for those who want to learn to what extent the human mind can be persuaded to believe in almost any fiction made real in the mind of those believers.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very interesting and provocative book, November 6, 2009

By 

William J. Christensen - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 (Hardcover)

This is a great book if the idea of reviewing past histories of "conspiracy theories" are of interest to you, from WWI to 9/11. The book is just packed full of information and documents to back up the concepts of the author. It reads like a PhD thesis----packed full of information and is not a book that will put you to sleep. It took concentration from me, even though it was well written. And It will take me at least a couple of reads to really get a handle on most of the topics. It is just very interesting look at conspiracy theories of all types with explanations of how they got started including extensive documentation and bibliography at the end. It would be a good research book and you could expand on any of the topics that may interest you by use of its excellent and extensive bibliography.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Magicians of Mud, January 2, 2012

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W. Green (Chicago) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 (Hardcover)

REAL ENEMIES is a quick summary of the "facts" related to conspiracies alleged to have occurred over the past century. The author Olmsted finds that with the increase in government power and the democratization of information, conspiracy theories have been increasing. Of course such theories are speculation based on available information. Proof of criminal conspiracy requires facts showing that at least two people willingly agreed to commit a crime and took some action toward that end. Attempting to prove conspiracy involving government officials is difficult because the criminal "defendants" can control the release of the "facts" and the investigative system.

Some "conspiracy" theories: Did President Wilson deceive the public leading to the American participation in World War I? Did Roosevelt know about Pearl Harbor but allow it to happen so the USA would be forced to enter World War II? Did Lyndon Johnson and others warp the "facts" to hide the truth about the JFK assassination? Did Nixon create a criminal snoop machine and then attempt to hide the truth? Did the Reagan government conspire to use illegal means to fund rogue military operations? Did "W" Bush create or take advantage of the events of 911 go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan?

The answers to all of these questions as presented in this historical summary could be: "yes", "maybe" "sort of", "possibly", "it depends of your point of view", and so on. Justifications for the possible illegal actions of officials are often cited: Wilson and Roosevelt needed to deceive the public in order to pull America into necessary wars and Lyndon Johnson and Hoover packaged an official JFK "lone nut" story to avoid igniting a nuclear war. The cover-up conspiracies that inevitably follow such disasters as Pearl Harbor or 911 could just be products of human nature. Bureaucrats and politicians need to put a pretty (or ignorant) face on their incompetence. But, as the author relates, no conspirator ever "takes the fall"-- no one goes to prison -- rarely is anyone even fired. Life goes on. Conspiracies continue.

There is a tone in the book that many of the conspiracy theories are set forth by the "little people" who do not have the facts and often jump to erroneous conclusions. It is suggested that shoe clerks and housewives find excitement in the conspiratorial chase otherwise not found in their mundane lives. And that often the government conspirators are "good guys" who cannot expose the logical motives behind their actions for reasons of national security. But then again even that could also just be a smoke screen.

Ultimately, the book shows that governmental and political criminal conspiracies and cover-ups are a real and continuing phenomena, obscured by the power of those who commit the crimes to create "official" stories, to manipulate public opinion, to delay or eliminate the release of facts, and to pardon those who happen to get caught.

After taking great pains in the book to appear neutral on the subject, the author identifies the book title perpetrators and summarizes the problem: "it is the secret actions of the government that are the real enemies of democracy."

I would add that it is the excessive power and often the criminality and incompetence of those in government that permits them to easily conceal the real motives, the crimes, the mistakes, the bribers, manipulators and "ego-driven crazies" involved in the conspiracies. Powerful politicians and bureaucrats like Johnson, Hoover and Helms working within the governmental/corporate/bureaucratic power structure are the magicians of mud who constantly dirty the waters of truth to conceal their crimes from a gullible and weary public.