A thread to float an idea for a book that I've been thinking about for a while. I write on minority religious movements, and esoteric movements in particular. One of the remarkable features of modern Western culture is how these movements have become the subject of CONSPIRACY THEORIES. - ThreadSky

robincdouglas.bsky.social • 37 days ago

A thread to float an idea for a book that I've been thinking about for a while.

I write on minority religious movements, and esoteric movements in particular. One of the remarkable features of modern Western culture is how these movements have become the subject of CONSPIRACY THEORIES.

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robincdouglas.bsky.social•37 days ago

Since the 1700s, many otherwise sane people have believed in non-existent conspiracies to control the world involving occultists, Freemasons and Jews.

This started out as a royalist Catholic idea - it was used to explain the French Revolution - but it has developed secular and libertarian variants.

robincdouglas.bsky.social•37 days ago

There are lots of books about conspiracy theories, of course, and also various books and articles about the various parts of the story (e.g. J. M. Roberts' classic work on myths about 18th century secret societies, various books on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, etc).

robincdouglas.bsky.social•37 days ago

But there is currently no mass-market book in English available which draws all the strands together and tells the story in a clear and engaging way from the 1700s up to the present day. (The closest thing to what I have in mind are a couple of unpublished PhD theses.)

robincdouglas.bsky.social•37 days ago

This would have some political salience because the latter parts of the story involve stuff like QAnon, Soros and Covid conspiracism, and the extreme, unhinged version of anti-Zionism (as opposed to rational critique of Israel and advocacy for the Palestinian people).

robincdouglas.bsky.social•37 days ago

False modesty aside, I am one of very few people who could write this book, and none of the others are going to do it. It would require a detailed knowledge of the history of esoteric, occult and Masonic-type movements (and the conservative Christian reaction to them) that very few people have.

robincdouglas.bsky.social•37 days ago

I would be genuinely interested to hear any thoughts that people have on this, particularly if anyone happens to know a commissioning editor who might be open to taking this proposal further.

casmilus.bsky.social•37 days ago

And of course the earlier Anglo history of positing "Papist plots".

iain16.bsky.social•37 days ago

I hope you get it off the ground, sounds like it would be an interesting story

richardkaczynski.bsky.social•37 days ago

Sounds like a fabulous book!

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