Truther Narratives: Conspiracy Theory Explained. What it is. How it forms. Why it spreads.

This book is an extended philosophical essay on conspiracy theory. It looks at conspiracy theory as a special case of a larger the role that narrative plays in shaping social reality, and indeed our experience of reality itself. It begins by asking what we mean by the term conspiracy theory. How does a story of this type differ from narratives about real conspiracies, which sometimes do in fact occur? The search for answers takes the inquiry into psychological explanations, evolutionary biology, social sciences, cultural criticism, literary analysis, and above all history. Conspiracy theory emerges as a type of story structured and animated by what a literary critic would recognize as an archetypal myth, a template that all conspiracy theories tend to have in common, whatever their surface differences. This is what the author calls the Truther Narrative. The book spotlights times and places in history when this narrative has burgeoned and fed movements, and it explores these examples for ideas about how to deal with the disturbing surge of Truther Narratives in our own time.