LEADER 04421nam 2200685 450 001 9910811790703321 005 20230803204639.0 010 $a3-11-034693-1 010 $a3-11-036794-7 024 7 $a10.1515/9783110346930 035 $a(CKB)3710000000229135 035 $a(EBL)1480476 035 $a(SSID)ssj0001333605 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11914135 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001333605 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)11392484 035 $a(PQKB)10500901 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC1480476 035 $a(DE-B1597)246490 035 $a(OCoLC)900718459 035 $a(OCoLC)913096140 035 $a(DE-B1597)9783110346930 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL1480476 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr11010396 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL805678 035 $a(OCoLC)890070987 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000000229135 100 $a20150210h20142014 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||#|||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aPlots, designs, and schemes $eAmerican conspiracy theories from the puritans to the present /$fMichael Butter 210 1$aBerlin, [Germany] ;$aBoston, [Massachusetts] :$cDe Gruyter,$d2014. 210 4$dİ2014 215 $a1 online resource (332 p.) 225 1 $alinguae & litterae,$x1869-7054 ;$vVolume 33 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a3-11-030759-6 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references. 327 $tFront matter --$tAcknowledgements --$tContents --$tIntroduction --$tChapter 1. Mapping American Conspiracism --$tChapter 2. Salem, or: The Metaphysical Puritan Conspiracy Theory --$tChapter 3. Subversion through Education: The Catholic Conspiracy Theory --$tChapter 4. Abolitionists, "Black Republicans," and the Slave Power: Antebellum Conspiracy Theories --$tChapter 5. "Masters of Deceit": Conspiracy Theory in the Great Red Scare of the 1950's --$tConclusion: To the Margins (and Back Again?) --$tWorks Cited 330 $aPlots, Designs, and Schemes is the first study that investigates the long history of American conspiracy theories from the perspective of literary and cultural studies. Since research in these fields has so far almost exclusively focused on the contemporary period, the book concentrates on the time before 1960. Four detailed case studies offer close readings of the Salem witchcraft crisis of 1692, fears of Catholic invasion during the 1830's to 1850's, antebellum conspiracy theories about slavery, and anxieties about Communist subversion during the 1950's. The study primarily engages with factual texts, such as sermons, pamphlets, political speeches, and confessional narratives, but it also analyzes how fears of conspiracy were dramatized and negotiated in fictional texts, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown (1835) or Hermann Melville's Benito Cereno (1855). The book offers three central insights: 1. The American predilection for conspiracy theorizing can be traced back to the co-presence and persistence of a specific epistemological paradigm that relates all effects to intentional human action, the ideology of republicanism, and the Puritan heritage. 2. Until far into the twentieth century, conspiracy theories were considered a perfectly legitimate form of knowledge. As such, they shaped how many Americans, elites as well as "common" people, understood and reacted to historical events. The Revolutionary War and the Civil War would not have occurred without widespread conspiracy theories. 3. Although most extant research claims the opposite, conspiracy theories have never been as marginal and unimportant as in the past decades. Their disqualification as stigmatized knowledge only occurred around 1960, and coincided with a shift from theories that detect conspiracies directed against the government to conspiracies by the government. 410 0$aLinguae & litterae ;$vVolume 33. 606 $aConspiracy theories$zUnited States 610 $aConspiracy theories. 610 $aNarrative structures. 610 $aUSA. 615 0$aConspiracy theories 676 $a001.9 686 $aHT 1691$2rvk 700 $aButter$b Michael$01156366 702 $aButter$b Michael 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910811790703321 996 $aPlots, designs, and schemes$94107519 997 $aUNINA