The Dictionary of Conspiracy Theories: An A-Z of the Alternative Narratives that Shape our World (Illustrated Paperback)

This book is paired with the world’s first digital interactive conspiracy-theory nebula: 1,136 entries and their 3,408 documented connections, live at thedictionaryofconspiracytheories.com.

Everyone has a favourite conspiracy theory.

Yours is in here.

The have been encyclopaedias, handbooks, dossiers and ranked lists of the top ten. Never a dictionary. The world’s first printed dictionary of conspiracy theories: 1,136 entries, from Abu Ghraib to Zurich Gnomes. Allegedly.

For the Researcher:

1,136 headwords, alphabetised. Each entry Gives definition, first attestation, origin and variant forms, with structured metadata beneath: geography, actors, mechanisms, motifs. Apparatus: 3,408 cross references, 2,350 named persons, a thematic index, a note on method, and a living bibliography online.

For the suspicious:

start with the one you already believe. Follow the cross references. See who it names, what it borrows, and which older theories it feeds. Free entries later it is midnight and you are somewhere you did not plan to be. The dictionary will not stop you. The rabbit hole is as deep and dark as you want it to be.

The dictionary does not mind which you are. It issues no verdicts either way, for a simple reason: some of its entries stopped being theories while this book was being written.

Conclusions are not included.