Mick Farren's A-to-Z compendium of conspiracy theory icons and other subcultural flash points offers an effective combination of documentation and humor. In addition to the expected material on the Trilateral Commission, the JFK assassination, and whatever it is the government's keeping in Area 51, Conspiracies, Lies, and Hidden Agendas has entries for incidents that never quite made it into the most popular versions of the secret history of the New World Order. Everyone remembers the Iran-Contra portion of the Reagan administration, for example, but Farren reminds us of the brief hullabaloo surrounding the 1983 murder of Vicki Morgan, the mistress of Reagan crony Alfred Bloomingdale. Visual icons situate each entry into one or more of 15 separate categories, including aliens, Nazis, the feds, and religious cults. (Of the Church of Scientology, though, Farren merely notes that they "have many lawyers and they tend to sue anyone who says bad things about them.") Among the most recent phenomena noted in the book are the "Bill Clinton death list" that circulated on the Internet and in right-wing media in 1998, and the 1999 high school massacre at Littleton, Colorado.
Product Description
According to Newsweek magazine, three quarters of Americans believe the "the government is involved in conspiracy." The X-Files is a national phenomenon. As we approach the year 2000, the media is filled with dire predictions of new millennium paranoia
In an A-Z directory format, Conspiracies, Lies, and Hidden Agendas by Mick Farren contains over 200 entries. Neither poking fun at conspiracy buffs nor conceding all arguments to skeptics, Farren's insightful account provides an objective and fascinating look at contemporary phenomenon.
