50 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time: History's Biggest Mysteries, Coverups, and Cabals

This review is based on the last edition "The 70 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time," as I have yet to read the new edition. The one star reviewers clearly don't get it or the authors' sense of humor. It is fairly well researched, with every chapter having its own bibliography that lists "Major Sources" used. But, in all honesty, criticizing this book for a lack of research is like criticizing Wes Anderson's movies for not being realistic; you're missing the point entirely if you make such claims. (Anderson wrote and directed Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and The Life Aquatic, four of the funniest movies you'll ever see.) The other big complaint is that this is simply a rehash of other works. Again, I can't help but think that those readers are simply missing the point. It was not the authors' intent to do some groundbreaking research into any of these conspiracies. Their goal was to gather all of the research that has been done, synthesize it, and present the available information in an entertaining fashion. Mission accomplished. The authors have a keen sense of just how funny all of this is, as they state in the introduction: "Just as Henry Kissinger cracks us up every time he intones his shoot-from-the-hip opinions as if he's reading from a stone tablet, we also see a good deal of unintentional humor in the dissenting conspiratorial worldview." The authors do not claim to believe in all of these conspiracy theories. They are merely presenting them with whatever facts are out there. The ones that have no factual basis are derided for what they are: pure bunkem. Here is a quote from the chapter "Apocalypse at a Glance", where the authors are discussing Richard W. Noone's theory that the world will end on May 5, 2000: "Though the book jacket claims that "astonishing evidence points to worldwide disaster in our lifetime," said evidence turns out to be culled mostly from fringe scientists such as Emanuel Velikofsky, making it likely that 5/5/2000's major event will be El Torrito's Cinco de Mayo happy hour." Even the conspiracies that do have some factual basis are treated in tounge-in-cheek fashion. Take this quote from the "October Surprise" chapter: "Soon the list of attendees was bulging, like the roster at a Shriners' convention. Everyone and his CIA handler had been at the Paris rendezvous, it seemed. Most claimed that French and Israeli intelligence operatives were also on hand to shepherd the clandestine deal and presumably enjoy a buffet style luncheon." If you don't find those quotes even mildly amusing, then you probably won't enjoy this book. Personally, I love the authors' sense of humor and the fact that they don't take any of this too seriously. That being said, there are some very intriguing chapters here, most notably "The Man Who Got Too Close," about Danny Casolaro, a man whom I had never heard of before. His murder/suicide (it was ruled a suicide but seems more like a murder to this read

I started reading this book back when it was only 50 conspiracy theories and a 4 second appearance on The X Files pretty much sold out the first printing in 3 days. The authors do a wonderful job of sorting through the wild eyed, feverish conspiracy writings and crafting excellent, detailed, knowledgeable overviews. They clearly approach each topic with a healthy degree of skepticism and humor. I mean some of these ideas are so freaky if you don't have a sense of humor, you'd want to beat some of these conspiracy idiots with a hardbound copy of the Illuminatus! trilogy. But they never let their skepticism get in the way of a good story, shall we say. I heartily recommend this book.

If you're not a parnoid, insomniac already, you will be after reading this fascinating, entertaining book on conspiracies. This book taps into our collective consciousness' current facination with conspiracy theories. From the kooky and bizarre to the chilling and all too believable, the authors examine 60 of the most notorious (and sometimes hilarious) conspiracies ever to come down the pike. Well researched and written in a light, engaging manner, this book will make you think twice before dismissing you're crazy Aunt Sally's stories about being abducted by UFOs from another dimension

"80 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time" is the largest, most expanded update of our book thus far. We've added ten extremely detailed chapters covering a welter of late-breaking and classic conspiracy theories not featured in our previous editions. That's almost 200 pages of new material, including:-- 911-- Anthrax-- Votescam 2000-- Enron-- The Philadelphia Experiment-- The Zodiac Killer(s)-- Echelon, the global spying network-- The CIA, LSD and the mysterious death of Frank Olson

If you have the most tepid of intrests in conspiracies, cover-ups , cabals or unexplainable phenomenom this book is for you! It's relatively inexpensive considering its bulk of information and the arduous tasks that must have been endured in order to get this book published. It documents everything from the mysterious death of Princess Diana to the CIA's test program, the lunar landing hoaxes and myrid government side projects that they wouldn't want you to know about. This book is the A-Z of every formidable conspiracy theory in exsistence and is well worth a look, even if only to increase your general knowledge of historical events and look from different perspectives at events. Unlike the tacky, childish writing style employed by most conspiracy writers, Vankin and Whalen look even-handedly at each event in a chronological and easy-to-understand order whilst detailing all the relevant facts and including their own personal sceptisism of information or conspiracies in a mature style. I give my two thumbs up to this amazing book!