The HIDDEN HISTORY of CONSPIRACY THEORY - From Machiavelli to QAnon

Why do conspiracy theories refuse to go away?

From arguments over who really killed JFK to claims of secret cabals controlling the world, from Pizzagate and QAnon to chemtrails and the belief that the Earth is flat, conspiracy theories continue to fascinate, provoke and divide us – even in an age when evidence is supposedly only a click away. Why do these stories have such a powerful hold on the public imagination? And why, once they take hold, can they be so difficult to dislodge?

Andrew McKenzie-McHarg takes us behind the conspiracy theory to ask where these ideas come from, how they evolve and what gives them their extraordinary staying power. What might Machiavelli, the French Revolution, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Nuremberg Trials and QAnon have in common? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Tracing the history of conspiracy thinking across centuries, McKenzie-McHarg reveals how familiar conspiratorial ideas are repeatedly reinvented for new times and new political purposes. He explores the people and movements who have used them, the anxieties they tap into, and the political and cultural conditions that allow them to flourish.

Join Andrew McKenzie-McHarg for a fascinating and timely exploration of one of the most persistent features of modern political culture — and discover why, whatever the evidence, the conspiracy never quite ends. 

AUTHOR BIO - Prof. Andrew McKenzie-Mcharg is a researcher and historian at the Bibliotheca Hertziana–Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome. His work explores the history of conspiratorial thinking and the development of the concept of “conspiracy theory”, with a particular interest in how early modern political and religious ideas around heresy, secrecy and conspiracy evolved into modern forms of conspiratorial thought. He was previously a research fellow at the Forschungszentrum Gotha, University of Erfurt, and then on the Conspiracy and Democracy Project at the University of Cambridge.

CHAIR BIO - Rafael Behr is a political columnist for the Guardian. He is a former Political Editor for the New Statesman, Chief Leader Writer and Online Editor for The Observer, a business news reporter for BBC online and a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times, based in the Baltic region and Russia.

Andrew will also be signing copies of his new book The Hidden History of Conspiracy Theory, published by Princeton University Press, which will be available to purchase on the night.