Conspiracy: A History of Boll*cks Theories, and How Not to Fall for Them

(Paperback)

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Description

'Uproarious . . . [Phillips and Elledge] pair the abundant good humour of this book with a warning about the corrosive effects of conspiracy theories' The Times

From the Satanic Panic to the anti-vaxx movement, the moon landing to Pizzagate, it's always been human nature to believe we're being lied to by the powers that be (and sometimes, to be fair, we absolutely are).

But while it can be fun to indulge in a bit of Deep State banter on the group chat, recent times have shown us that some of these theories have taken on a life of their own - and in our dogged quest for the truth, it appears we might actually be doing it some damage.

In Conspiracy, Tom Phillips and Jonn Elledge take us on a fascinating, insightful and often hilarious journey through conspiracy theories old and new, to try and answer a vital question for our times: how can we learn to log off the QAnon message boards, and start trusting hard evidence again

Praise for the Brief History series:

'Witty, entertaining and slightly distressing... You should probably read it' Sarah Knight, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck

'Brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant' Jeremy Clarkson

'Very funny' Mark Watson

'Both readable and entertaining' Telegraph

Reviews

For Tom Phillips and HUMANS:
In dark times, it's reassuring to learn that we've always been a bunch of clueless f*cking nitwits -- Stuart Heritage * Don't Be a Dick, Pete *
A light-touch history of moments when humans have got it spectacularly wrong... Both readable and entertaining * Telegraph *
If you find yourself looking at the news and wondering how humanity has got so many things wrong, over and over again, this book is a very funny answer to just that question' -- Mark Watson, comedian

Author Bio

Tom Phillips (Author)

Tom Phillips is the editor of Full Fact, Britain's leading independent fact-checking organisation. Previously he was the editorial director of BuzzFeed UK, where he divided his time between very serious reporting on important issues... and making jokes.

Tom's first book, HUMANS: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up, was published in 2018, and has since been translated into more than 30 languages. Tom's second book, TRUTH: A Brief History of Total Bullsh*t was published in 2019 and has so far sold in 20 territories.

Jonn Elledge (Author)

Jonn Elledge is a New Statesman columnist and a contributor to the Big Issue, the Guardian, the Evening Standard and a number of other newspapers. He was previously an assistant editor at the New Statesman, where he created and ran its urbanism-focused CityMetric site, spending six happy years writing about cities, maps and borders and hosting the Skylines podcast. He has written three books, as well as over a hundred editions of the Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything. He lives in London.