Post your comments here on the readings by Hofman and Tackett.

Leave your comments here regarding White’s article.

Our discussion now turns to Bernard Bailyn and Gordon Wood, and their interpretations of conspiracy theories in the American Revolution. Take note of the questions that Bailyn raises in his short essay on the topic. How does Wood critique Hofstadter’s analysis and what insights does he have about the relationship of conspiratorial thought to professional historical methodology?

“Washington Crossing the Delaware,” Emanuel Leutze (1851)

Richard Hofstadter is often credited by scholars for having shaped early scholarly interest in conspiracy theories or what he famously called the “paranoid style.” Leave your comments here on his groundbreaking essay, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics.”

Richard Hofstadter

Here is a list of topics students have chosen to work on as we explore the alternative universe of conspiracy theories:

1. New World Order — Brenda

2. Death of Princess Diana — Anna H.

3. Death of Marilyn Monroe — Heather T.

4. Assassinations of counter-cultural figures — Jim M.

5. Cover-up of Shakespeare’s true identity — Eugene H.