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Conspiracy Theories in U.S. History

Course Description

This course will study the history of conspiracy theories in the United States, from the anti-Catholicism of the Puritans to "QAnon." Its aim will not only be to catalog and describe prominent theories, but also to (1) understand why certain Americans accepted conspiracy theories as valid explanations of political, economic, and social change, and (2) to use conspiracy theories as a lens to understand more legitimate social, economic, and political conflicts.

Athena Title

Conspiracy Theories U.S. Hist

Pre or Corequisite

One course in HIST or INTL or SOCI or PSYC or RELI or FYOS or POLS or EDUC or EDEL or EDMG

Grading System

A - F (Traditional)

Student Learning Outcomes

  • By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about historical conspiracy theories by gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
  • By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
  • By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of conspiracy theories in the United States has shaped social, cultural, and class identities, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
  • By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.

Topical Outline

  • 1. Overview of critical thinking skill, conspiracy theories, and goals for the course
  • 2. The “Popish threat” -- anti-Catholicism in colonial America
  • 3. Witches – the Salem Witch Trials as conspiracy
  • 4. Paranoia and the American Revolution
  • 5. Federalists and Antifederalists
  • 6. Defending the common man in Jacksonian America
  • 7. Nativism
  • 8. The Slave Power and Abolition
  • 9. “Money Power” in the Gilded Age
  • 10. The Red Scare
  • 11. Huey Long and Father Coughlin’s Depression America
  • 12. Anticommunism
  • 13. UFOs and modernism
  • 14. JFK
  • 15. Fighting The Power Elite: Conspiracies on the Left
  • 16. Robert DePugh and The Minutemen
  • 17. Thunder on the Right: From Oklahoma City to Trump
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