The Fear of Conspiracy: Images of Un-American Subversion from the Revolution to the Present

First published by Cornell in 1971, The Fear of Conspiracy brings together eighty-five speeches, documents, and writings--the authors of which range from George Washington to Stokely Carmichael--that illustrate the role played in American history by the fear of conspiracy and subversion. This book, documenting two centuries of conspiracy-mongering (1763-1966), highlights the American tendency to search for subversive enemies and to construct terrifying dangers from fragmentary and highly circumstantial evidence.