In half a decade we’ve gone from Jeb Bush making a serious run for president to Marjorie Taylor Greene running unopposed and winning a House seat in Georgia. QAnon came seemingly out of nowhere, but taps into a much deeper and older series of conspiracy theories that have surfaced, resurfaced, and been remixed throughout time.

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? In an increasingly complex world of information bombarding us as blinding speed and high volume, the cognitive appeal of easy answers and turnkey “community” may be much stronger than ever before.

List of conspiracy theory books

It’s a deep topic so we’d best get started. If you’ve got an urgent issue with a friend or loved one, start here:

Best for deprogramming a friend:

Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect — Mick West

More conspiracy theory books:

• Anti-Intellectualism in American Life — Richard Hofstadter
• Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History — Kurt Andersen
• On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy — Lee McIntyre
• Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon — Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko
• Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power — Anna Merlan
• Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Conspiracy Theories — Rob Brotherton
• The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind — Gustave Le Bon
• The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements — Eric Hoffer
• The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War — Jeff Sharlet
• The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory — Jesse Walker

Order on bookshop.org and thumb your nose at Amazon

• see the full list on bookshop.org