The Hidden History of Conspiracy Theory: From Machiavelli to QAnon

Truthers, birthers, flat-Earthers, the deep state, crisis actors, chemtrails, the Epstein files, Pizzagate, the Plandemic — it seems as though there’s a conspiracy theory for every situation.

But what exactly is a conspiracy theory? And why is the term used to describe beliefs that are so unlike theories (at least in the scientific sense of the word)?Join Andrew McKenzie-McHarg as he traces the origins of conspiracy theorising from Machiavelli and Savonarola through the French Revolution, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Nuremberg Trials, to Richard Hofstadter’s “paranoid style” and today’s QAnon - offering a new perspective on the origins and evolution of one of the defining—and most troubling—features of modern political culture.Andrew will be ‘In Conversation’ with journalist Rafael Behr.