Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America
Historian Goldberg (Barry Goldwater) analyzes "conspiracism" in  American history with balance and precision, presenting  conspiracy belief as a traditional part of our culture rather  than a fringe response from deranged or abnormal personalities.  Goldberg discusses a range of examples, from the Salem witch  trials, to the abolitionists' slave power conspiracies vs. the  Confederates' slave insurrection plots, to the Klan's hatred of  African Americans, Catholics, and Jews. However, he focuses his  study on five post-World War II conspiracy theories: the  Communist fifth column, the belief in the Antichrist, the  assassination of JFK, the plot against black America, and the  Roswell incident concerning a purported alien attack. Goldberg's  writing is clear and vivid, and his willingness to tackle  conspiracies emanating from many points of the political  spectrum makes his argument more cogent. Underlying his analysis  is the view that both the media and, ironically, the government  have been instrumental in making these five conspiracy theories  (and others) more credible. This important and unusually  accessible study is strongly recommended for academic libraries,  most public libraries, and large high school libraries. Jack  Forman, San Diego Mesa Coll. Lib.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.