Bøger af Michael Barkun

American society has changed dramatically since A Culture of Conspiracy was first published in 2001. In this revised and expanded edition, Michael Barkun delves deeper into America's conspiracy sub-culture, exploring the rise of 9/11 conspiracy theories, the "e;birther"e; controversy surrounding Barack Obama's American citizenship, and how the conspiracy landscape has changed with the rise of the Internet and other new media.What do UFO believers, Christian millennialists, and right-wing conspiracy theorists have in common? According to Michael Barkun in this fascinating yet disturbing book, quite a lot. It is well known that some Americans are obsessed with conspiracies. The Kennedy assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the 2001 terrorist attacks have all generated elaborate stories of hidden plots. What is far less known is the extent to which conspiracist worldviews have recently become linked in strange and unpredictable ways with other "e;fringe"e; notions such as a belief in UFOs, Nostradamus, and the Illuminati. Unraveling the extraordinary genealogies and permutations of these increasingly widespread ideas, Barkun shows how this web of urban legends has spread among subcultures on the Internet and through mass media, how a new style of conspiracy thinking has recently arisen, and how this phenomenon relates to larger changes in American culture. This book, written by a leading expert on the subject, is the most comprehensive and authoritative examination of contemporary American conspiracism to date.Barkun discusses a range of material-involving inner-earth caves, government black helicopters, alien abductions, secret New World Order cabals, and much more-that few realize exists in our culture. Looking closely at the manifestations of these ideas in a wide range of literature and source material from religious and political literature, to New Age and UFO publications, to popular culture phenomena such as The X-Files, and to websites, radio programs, and more, Barkun finds that America is in the throes of an unrivaled period of millenarian activity. His book underscores the importance of understanding why this phenomenon is now spreading into more mainstream segments of American culture.

Chasing Phantoms: Reality, Imagination, and Homeland Security Since 9/11

This edition traces the role of Christian Identity figures in the events of the first half of the 1990s, from the Oklahoma City bombing, to the rise of the militia movement and the Freemen standoff in Montana. It explores the government's response to these challenges to the legitimacy of the state.

The world of millenarian movements holds a special fascination. The idea of transforming an existing imperfect society overnight into a perfect utopia has a powerful appeal, and over and over, in widely scattered areas and epochs, groups have followed the call of a messiah figure to usher in a beautiful new world. What causes these movements to arise? Do they conform to any common patterns? In this absorbing study of unconventional human behavior, Michael Barkun develops a broad-based analysis that focuses on millenarian movements as consequences of local disasters. He presents many examples of millenarian groups in action in both modern and preindustrial societies and reviews existing theories and explanations. After describing the characteristics of the disaster situations that produce them, he explores the psychological effects of disasters, discusses the conversion process, and grapples with the question whether such movements are rational. He concludes with a detailed examination of millenarianism in the modern world. The longing for utopia is a durable human quality. Both general readers and scholars interested in problems of change, violence, and social upheaval will find Disaster and the Millennium wide-ranging and provocative.

Examines all the leading millennial movements of New York in the 1840s showing intricate linkages among social reformers, community builders, and revivalists. The book adds to our understanding of the richly textured fabric of American social and religious experimentation, even to the present day.