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American Studies 170 Professor Jacob Cohen
The Idea of Conspiracy in American Culture
Books in the Bookstore (or awaiting your summons at Amazon.com).
Davis, David Brion The Fear of Conspiracy*
Miller, Arthur The Crucible*
Wright, Laurence Remembering Satan*
Popular Mechanics Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can’t Stand Up*
Corsi, Jerome Who Really Killed Kennedy
Young & Kaiser Postmortem: New Evidence in the Case of Sacco and Vanzetti
Walker, Jesse The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory
Articles posted on the Latte website for the course:
Cohen, Jacob: "Yes, Oswald Did it Alone"* in Best American Essays;
also Cohen essays on Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, and the (alleged)
murder of Vince Foster
Schweber, Richard “The Truth About Tuskegee”
Jodi Dean: “If Anything Is Possible”
Bridget Brown: “My Body Is Not My Own: Alien Abduction…”
Eithne Quinn: “ ‘All Eyes On Me’: The Paranoid Style of Tupac Shakur”
Films and Documentaries (available at the website for the course): “JFK”* “Indictment”*, “Capturing the Friedmans”*, “Fahrenheit 9/11”
Various articles and other items of course interest will be posted on the course web site (see WEB CT) as they appear. You are encouraged to surf the Web in search of some of the myriad conspiracy sites devoted to the topics of the course. The materials you will find there are often fascinating , occasionally accurate. You may, for example, ask Google to inform you about the so-called “birther movement” with its astonishing allegations of conspiracy in connection with the birth and citizenship of President Kennedy. As you will learn below, there is a final paper required (in addition to a midterm paper); one prompt for that paper will urge you to evaluate a conspiracy allegation of your choice, using the methodology for assessing such allegations which is developed in the course. The so-called “truther” allegations about Obama would be an excellent topic, so would so-called “holocaust denial”, a matter we will be covering in class as well. As you will soon learn there will be many, many other allegations of conspiracy mentioned in class which may sieze your curiosity, perhaps as a final paper topic.
HOW MUCH DO YOU HAVE TO READ? You will find that completely fulfilling the reading and viewing assignments below will take more time than most of you have. What then, you will ask, is required of you, and what is optional? Required are works mentioned in this syllabus which are starred (*). As for further readings: the answer depends in part on the topics you choose to write on for the two papers and on the questions you choose to answer in the final exam (see below), and, of course, on you own curiosity. You can, in other words, read specifically for the papers and the final exam. You will have a large range of paper topics to choose from. While you won’t know the final exam questions ahead of time, you will have a good idea of the subjects to be covered well in advance of the final. So come to class, that’s important, pick up on my cues and suggestions, and ask questions. “Is this reading essential?” , I am readily available, by e-mail, and in my office every school day. If you want to know where to start, tonight, start reading Remembering Satan immediately. Everyone should read that, and, I can assure you, you will never forget it. Also view the films “Indictment” and “Capturing the Friedman”s, as they appear on the latte website for the course.
Course Requirements:
A midterm paper, double-spaced, not more than 12 pages, is due on March 10. Multiple questions for the paper (you will write on one) will be distributed a month in advance of the due date. There will be a three-hour final exam comprised of three essays selected from a wide range of optional questions, and as mentioned above, there will also be a final course paper due on the day of the final exam, (Again, many possible paper topics will be available a month before the due date and you will also be invited to propose other topics dear to you. However, if you choose to write on your own topic, you’ll need to run the topic by me ahead time so we can both be assured that if fits into the major themes of the course. (Please do not make travel plans for the scheduled time for the final exam.) Before class, after class, (of course, during ), and in my office (Brown 310), every day, I am available to discuss any and all of the material in the course. I am a faithful E-Mail correspondent, JCOHEN etc.: try me and expect a quick response. Starting in the third week, once a week there will be an optional evening discussion group, at time and places to be announced. They are not required, but they are very lively, if past experience is an indication, and when due dates and exam are approaching, they are of very useful in helping you prepare. Finally a somber matter: let it be clear that any discovered instance of plagiarism or other form of egregious academic misconduct will result in a failing grade in the course. And this too: please understand that you cannot receive a passing grade for the course unless you have completed all the assigned work, two papers and the final exam. If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis and wish to have reasonable accommodations made for you, please contact me. That will be a very easy conversation, I assure you.
Below is an outline of the topics covered in the course, the approximate dates when those topics will be addressed, and also required and suggested readings for each section of the outline.
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COURSE OUTLINE
I. Concepts and Themes January 13-30
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A. The basic concept: conspiracy
1. allegations of "conspiracy" from above and below.
2. "counter allegations of conspiracy" (allegations
of conspiracies to allege conspiracies).
3. cui bono?
B. The Anglo-American criminal law of conspiracy: chains and wheels.
C. Reality and Illusion: what is a "fact". Issues of evidence.
D. Liars: intentional and unintentional. The "performance of innocence".
E. Sociological , psychological, and "post-modern" interpretations of
historical "paranoia". Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, and other related "belief systems"
F. The concept of "Reasonable Doubt"
G. Demonology and History: the Great “Witch Hunts” of the 15th-17th centuries; Salem, 1692
H. Accusatorial and Inquisitorial approaches.
I.. Objective and subjective guilt: the Russian purge trials
J. Everyday paranoia, conspiracy theories not on the fringes but in the respectable center of public discourse.
K. Urban Legends: Case in point: The Tuskegee Experiment.
L.. The most recent (alleged) “witch hunt”: the search for satanic and
other alleged conspiracies to sexually molest children.
Readings; Wright, Remembering Satan* (you should start reading this immediately); excerpts from the famous essay “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” *by Richard Hofstadter can be found in Davis, The Fear of Conspiracy”, pp. 2-9. See also Davis’ own essay in that book, pp. 9-21. View the films “Indictment” and “Capturing the Friedmans”; Richard Schweber: “The Truth About Tuskegee” article available at course website (Latte). Also selections on the Website: “The Enemy Within”, “Case in favor of the McMartin prosecution”; “The Amirault Case”*.
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II. Allegations and Counter-Allegations of Conspiracy in Early American History. Feb 3-13
A. The great witch craze at the end of the 17th century: Salem. The anatomy of a "witch hunt".
B. The Idea of Conspiracy and the American Revolution
C. The anti-Illumanati craze.
D. The alleged Masonic Plot
E. The alleged Catholic Plot, the alleged mormon Plot
F. The idea of conspiracy and the Civil War.
G. Populism and the alleged capitalist conspiracy.
Readings: Arthur Miller, “The Crucible” Also selections from a collection of original sources on the above to be placed on the course website: see selections by George Washington, John Robison, Abraham Bishop, Jedidiah Morse, Samuel Morse, William Godell, Sydenham Moore. Also, the manifesto “The Address of the United States Anti-Masonic Convention). These items are taken from David Brion Davis, ed., The Fear of Conspiracy.
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III. Anti-Radicalism and anti-anti Radicalism in America February 15- 28 Feb24-March 6
A. The alleged frame-up of radicals as a paranoid theme: were they guilty, and does it matter?
The Performance of Innocence
1. The Haymarket Bombers
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2. Big Bill Haywood, the McNamara Bros., Joe Hill
3. Mooney and Billings
4. The “Scottsboro Boys”
5. Sacco and Vanzetti
6. Alger Hiss
7. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
B. Defining "McCarthyism" and anti-McCarthyism: allegations of
conspiracy and counter-allegations of conspiracy. Was this a “witch hunt?”
Readings: Young and Kaiser, Postmortem; Cohen articles on Hiss and Rosenbergs.* Selections in Davis on “McCarthyism”. You may be interested in viewing the first version of the film “The Manchurian Candidate” (1963) which can be found on the website for the course. The gung-ho may be interested in a recent remake of that movie, noting the differing treatment of the material, reflecting the times in which the two films were made. (There’s another idea for a final paper.
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IV. How War Came: Conspiratorial allegations regarding the origins of American wars March 10-17
A. Lincoln's Alleged Conspiracy to Start the Civil War
B. The press and the Spanish American War.
C. The Munitions Manufacturers and World War I.
D. President Roosevelt and the Coming of World War II
E. The Hidden Histories of the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf wars. Invading Iraq.
F. "Left Wing Radical" allegations of the Capitalism and Ameri(k)a
conspiratorial source of the world's wars. The case of Noam Chomsky.
G. The War in Vietnam, The present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
H. The (alleged) “Neo-Con” conspiracy.
Readings: Stinnet, Day of Deceit; Also view Michael Moore’s, “Fahrenheit 9/11” *, Articles “Moore’s Lies”* and “Anti Moore”* on the course website
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V. Assassination and the Paranoid Imagination 19-31
A. The Lincoln Assassination: Was Stanton behind it?
B. The Assassination of John F. Kennedy. Four questions:
1. how many assassins?
2. was Oswald an assassin?
3. was there a prior conspiracy?
4. was there a subsequent coverup?
C. Paranoia and American film: the case of Oliver Stone
D. The assassinations of Robert Kennedy and M.L. King.
Readings: Corsi: Who Really Killed Kennedy? View Oliver Stone’s renowned JFK* which is available at the course website, and then read Cohen, “Yes, Oswald Alone Shot Kennedy”. *
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VI. "Right Wing Extremism"; "Left Wing Extremism"; "Centrist Extremism” April 3-6
A. Anti-Semitism: "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".
B. Holocaust Denial.
C. The "Religious Right"; Oklahoma City and the militias. Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidians
D.. Anti-anti Semitism; is all alleged anti –Semitism really “anti-Semitic?’
D. Can the tactics of the ADL be termed “McCarthyite?
E. "Left Wing" Conspiracy allegations: Environmental disaster, Global Capitalism. “The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”
F. Were the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 stolen by the Republicans?
Readings: research holocaust denial on the internet
VII. Flying Saucers. alien abduction, government coverup: is the "truth out there"? April 7-10
A. The Roswell controversy
B. The"evidence" for abduction. A new paradigm of explanation?
C. Again: intentional liars, sincerity and insincerity. Are these relevant
categories?
D. "Postmodern perspectives".
Readings: Read Jodi Dean, Bridget Brown, Quinn posted on the website.
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VIII. Conspiracy Allegations in recent controversy. April 17- 28
A: the "truther movement", conspiracy allegations on the 9/11 attack
B. The “Birther” movement: the alleged lies by Obama and about Obama and about the
circumstances of his birth, parentage, and his constitutional eligibility to be president.
B. Watergate, Irangate,, and Whitewater
C. The Lindbergh Kidnapping
D. The Downing of the Korean Airliner:007
E. The Vince Foster Suicide (or was it murder?)
F. Was Hurricane Carter Innocent, framed in a racist plot by the police?
Reading: 9/11 Myths (Popular Mechanics)*;, Corsi, Where’s the Birth Certificate?, check out “Truther” websites. You may be interested to read my essay on the Foster Suicide (or murder) and critique of that article which is available on the website for the course.