Joseph Masco is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago and author of The Future of Fallout, and Other Episodes in Radioactive World-Making, also published by Duke University Press.Lisa Wedeen is Mary R. Morton Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and author of Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria.

“In a time of increasing epistemic confusion, Joseph Masco and Lisa Wedeen brilliantly complicate the usual distinction between fact-based rationality and conspiracy theory by analyzing the infiltration of official disinformation into the public sphere and by exploring the blurred line between paranoid thinking and critical theory. Their book is an innovative and crucial contribution to the understanding of the politics of uncertainty and suspicion in contemporary societies.” - Didier Fassin, Professor at the Collège de France and the Institute for Advanced Study “This brilliant collection envisions conspiracy theories anew. It not only showcases distinct conspiracies across global sites and time periods, but also petitions readers to examine their own investments in conspiratorial thinking. Conspiracy/Theory is a dazzling provocation and an important intervention.” - Elisabeth R. Anker, author of (Ugly Freedoms)

• Introduction: Conspiracy/Theory / Joseph Masco and Lisa WeedenPart I. Organizing Fictions1. Impasse and Genre in American Politics and Literature / George Shulman  372. Where Did AIDS Come from? / Lochlann Jain  613. A False Flag / Joseph Masco  814. Conspiracy Attunement and Context: The Case of the President’s Body / Elizabeth Anne Davis  1045. Conspiracy, Theory, and the “Post-Truth” Public Sphere / Timothy Melley  127Part II. Atmospheres of Doubt6. On Certainty and the Question of Judgment / Lisa Wedeen  1497. Resonant Apophenia / Susan Lepselter  1748. The Play of Conspiracy in Plato’s Republic / Demetra Kasimis  1909. An Economy of Suspicion: On the “Military-Civilian Divide” and the New American Militarism / Nadia Abu El-Haj  210Part III. The Force of Capital10. Conspiracies of Theory: Of Gold in the Shadow of Deindustrialization / Rosalind C. Morris  23511. Adrian Piper and Alien Conspiracies of Bullying and Whistleblowing / Joseph Dumit  26412. Humanitarian Profiteering in the Central African Republic as Conspiracy and Rumor / Louisa Lombard  29113. Confessions of an Accused Conspiracy Theorist: The Financialization of Higher Education / Robert Meister  314Part IV. The Politics of Enmity14. Conspiracy and Its Curious Afterlives / Faith Hillis  34115. Comedy of Terrors: National Security Fictions and the Origins of al-Qa‘ida / Darryl Li  36216. After Muslims: Authority, Suspicion, and Secrecy in the Liberal Democratic State / Hussein Ali Agrama 38617. Flame and Steel inside the Capitol / Kathleen Belew  409Epilogue / Joseph Masco and Lisa Wedeen  425Acknowledgments  435References  437Contributors  483Index

Joseph Masco is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago and author of The Future of Fallout, and Other Episodes in Radioactive World-Making, also published by Duke University Press.Lisa Wedeen is Mary R. Morton Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and author of Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria.

“In a time of increasing epistemic confusion, Joseph Masco and Lisa Wedeen brilliantly complicate the usual distinction between fact-based rationality and conspiracy theory by analyzing the infiltration of official disinformation into the public sphere and by exploring the blurred line between paranoid thinking and critical theory. Their book is an innovative and crucial contribution to the understanding of the politics of uncertainty and suspicion in contemporary societies.” - Didier Fassin, Professor at the Collège de France and the Institute for Advanced Study “This brilliant collection envisions conspiracy theories anew. It not only showcases distinct conspiracies across global sites and time periods, but also petitions readers to examine their own investments in conspiratorial thinking. Conspiracy/Theory is a dazzling provocation and an important intervention.” - Elisabeth R. Anker, author of (Ugly Freedoms)

• Introduction: Conspiracy/Theory / Joseph Masco and Lisa WeedenPart I. Organizing Fictions1. Impasse and Genre in American Politics and Literature / George Shulman  372. Where Did AIDS Come from? / Lochlann Jain  613. A False Flag / Joseph Masco  814. Conspiracy Attunement and Context: The Case of the President’s Body / Elizabeth Anne Davis  1045. Conspiracy, Theory, and the “Post-Truth” Public Sphere / Timothy Melley  127Part II. Atmospheres of Doubt6. On Certainty and the Question of Judgment / Lisa Wedeen  1497. Resonant Apophenia / Susan Lepselter  1748. The Play of Conspiracy in Plato’s Republic / Demetra Kasimis  1909. An Economy of Suspicion: On the “Military-Civilian Divide” and the New American Militarism / Nadia Abu El-Haj  210Part III. The Force of Capital10. Conspiracies of Theory: Of Gold in the Shadow of Deindustrialization / Rosalind C. Morris  23511. Adrian Piper and Alien Conspiracies of Bullying and Whistleblowing / Joseph Dumit  26412. Humanitarian Profiteering in the Central African Republic as Conspiracy and Rumor / Louisa Lombard  29113. Confessions of an Accused Conspiracy Theorist: The Financialization of Higher Education / Robert Meister  314Part IV. The Politics of Enmity14. Conspiracy and Its Curious Afterlives / Faith Hillis  34115. Comedy of Terrors: National Security Fictions and the Origins of al-Qa‘ida / Darryl Li  36216. After Muslims: Authority, Suspicion, and Secrecy in the Liberal Democratic State / Hussein Ali Agrama 38617. Flame and Steel inside the Capitol / Kathleen Belew  409Epilogue / Joseph Masco and Lisa Wedeen  425Acknowledgments  435References  437Contributors  483Index