David Aaronovitch
Author of Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History
About the Author
Works by David Aaronovitch
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1954-07-08
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
- Education
- Gospel Oak Primary School
Holloway County Comprehensive
William Ellis School
Oxford University (Balliol College)
Victoria University of Manchester - Occupations
- journalist
author
broadcaster - Relationships
- Aaronovitch, Ben (brother)
Aaronovitch, Sam (father)
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 4
- Members
- 617
- Popularity
- #40,747
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 32
- ISBNs
- 22
- Languages
- 2
Curious about the persistence of conspiratorial thinking after encountering a man who believed that the moon landings were faked, Aaronovitch begins a lighthearted exploration of what he calls a “period of fashionable conspiracism,” an endeavor that quickly turns more serious. Hoping to understand the psychology of conspiracy theories, what he defines as “the attribution of deliberate agency to something that is more likely to be accidental or unintended” or “the attribution of secret action to one party that might far more reasonably be explained as the less covert and less complicated action of another,” and what makes them often more engaging to popular culture than actual history, in each chapter he delves chronologically into some of the last centuries most infamous hoaxes and myths.
As Aaronovitch explores in depth such paranoid tales as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the idea that FDR had prior knowledge about Pearl Harbor, the secret bloodline of Jesus as described in Holy Blood, Holy Grail and, of course, 9/11 being an inside job, he searches for some of the commonalities each share and hits on some thought-provoking threads. While I wouldn’t call the work prescient exactly (that would risk falling into the “historian’s fallacy” Aaronvitch describes, “the tendency to forget at the time that the actors in a historical drama simply did not know, at the time, what was coming next”), there was a lot that rang true for me as misinformation has only strengthened its grip on the publication imagination during the 2010s.
In particular, he describes the way that conspiracy theories can be used to aid an authoritarian regime. Aaronovitch’s account of the Kagonovitch trial in 1940s USSR, for instance, in which a prominent bureaucrat in the Stalinist regime was accused of being embroiled in a Trotskyist plot of sabotage, illustrates how conspiracy can become a convenient tool by the authorities by allowing them to explain away their failures on perfidious outside forces. I can see echoes of this in the Pizzagate and Qanon accounts of a deep state being behind the Trump administration’s lack of success.
In addition, the slow evolution of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion from 19th century French anti-Napoleonic literature to antisemitic ur-text through the plagiarism and repurposing of numerous bad faith actors in Germany and Russia, reminded me of the mutation of memes online in the 21st century. On that note, it was interesting to see Aaronovitch’s discussion of the capital-I Internet’s effect on 9/11 conspiracy theories, bringing into orbit strange political bedfellows, and how such drawings together of paranoid ideas across the conspiratorial landscape has only increased as algorithms rewarded engagement regardless of its truth.
It’s in Aaronovitch’s conclusion, I think, where the work's major weaknesses are shown, lacking a strong argument of how our culture may remedy this increasingly sinister situation. As he attempts to brush off such “alternative truths” as merely false assumptions broken by critical thinking, the last decade of mostly unmoderated digital disinformation, is a simplistic hope. In any case, though, Voodoo Histories as a whole is a loose but fascinating collection of essays that provides some valuable information even a decade later.… (more)