Bibliography – My Writings on Conspiracy Theories

With the conspiracist mindset seemingly on the perpetual rise these years, I thought it useful to gather my various writings on this topic in a single place, to be updated as needed.

• "Fellow Conservatives, Please Reject Conspiracy Theories." The Dispatch, April 22, 2022. Republicans must stop alleging that the 2020 presidential election was a "fraud," that COVID-19 vaccinations are "dangerous," and that the U.S. government "lied" about developing banned bio-weapons in Ukraine.
• "A Conspiracy Theory Spreads Polio." The New York Sun, May 24, 2005. Shows the direct and tragic implications of the unfounded fear of conspiracies.
• "A Millennium of Paranoia." The Wall Street Journal, April 26, 1995. A forerunner of Conspiracy in the context of the Oklahoma City bombing.
• "A Spy Myth is Born." New York Post, March 11, 2002. Looks at a bizarre (and short-lived) 9/11 conspiracy theory.
• "A Zionist Conspiracy Theory too Far." DanielPipes.org, August 1, 2003. Ponders the thesis that "The Zionists had hired and installed Saddam, Qaddafi, Asad, Yasser Arafat, Abbas and others to play the role of enemy."
• "Ahmad Yusuf and "The Future of Islam in America." DanielPipes.org, December 19, 2003. Traces the thinking of a U.S.-based Islamist.
• "Barry Chamish, Holocaust Revisionist?" DanielPipes.org, February 26, 2004. Traces the thinking of Israel's leading conspiracy theorist.
• "CAIR, Captive of Conspiracism." DanielPipes.org, July 22, 2006. Notes the self-inflicted harm of the conspiracist mentality.
• Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It Comes From. New York: Free Press, 1997. My second book on conspiracy theories, an essay looking at the whole of the conspiracy-theory phenomenon in the West.
• "Conspiracy Theories Keep Polio Alive." DanielPipes.org, January 4, 2004. A more detailed version of "A Conspiracy Theory Spreads Polio."
• "Dealing With Middle Eastern Conspiracy Theories." Orbis, 36 (1992): 41-56. Commissioned by the CIA (yes!), an effort to recommend to government agencies how to respond to the perplexing phenomenon of conspiracy theories. So far as I know, this is the only (publicly available) policy paper on the topic.
• "Deadly Denial [of Muslim Anti-Semitism]." New York Post, October 26, 2003. How an unpleasant subject gets short shrift.
• "Denial: A River in Egypt." New York Post, January 14, 2002. Not actually about conspiracy theories but about the "pattern of avoiding unpleasant facts" that serves as a precursor to that mentality.
• "Diana and Arab Conspiracy." The Weekly Standard, November 10, 1997. How the Muslim world responded to the death of the British princess and her Egyptian boyfriend.
• "EgyptAir Probe Uncovers Anti-Americanism." The Wall Street Journal, November 24, 1999. About the wild ideas circulating in Egypt about the downing of an airliner outside of New York City.
• "Fluoridation." DanielPipes.org, July 1, 2003. A footnote to the right-wing fears in 1950s America.
• "Further on the 'October Surprise. Conspiracy Theory." DanielPipes.org, March 22, 2004. Postscripts to "The "October Surprise" Theory."
• "Gary Sick's Same Old Song." The Wall Street Journal, May 2, 1991. Tracing one lie in one specific conspiracy theory.
• "How Kosovo Plays in the Middle East." National Post, May 19, 1999. How a straight-forward episode was interpreted anything but.
• The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. My first book on conspiracy theories, a detailed catalogue, typography, and analysis of the Middle Eastern phenomenon.
• "Imperial Israel: The Nile-to-Euphrates Calumny." Middle East Quarterly, March 1994. Deep thinkers like Yasir Arafat figure out Israel's territorial aspirations from wisps of evidence.
• "Israel, America and Arab Delusions." Commentary, March 1991. Shows the hopeless confusion among Arabs understanding the U.S.-Israel relationship: Is America a puppet of Jerusalem – or Israel the cat's paw of Washington?
• "Jewish Control – Between Reality and Myth." Al-Mushahid as-Siyasi (London), October 18, 1998. An attempt to straighten out a basic topic for an Arabic-reading audience.
• "[Michael Barkun on] Old Conspiracies, New Beliefs." The New York Sun, January 13, 2004. Discussion of an important analysis and update on the conspiracy theory front.
• "Middle East Mischief." Middle East Quarterly, September 1994. Looks at the "legacy of secrecy and trickery," or actual conspiracies, in modern Middle East history.
• "More on the 'Nile-to-Euphrates' Calumny." DanielPipes.org, June 12, 2007. Updates my 1994 article on this subject.
• "Parody: The Election Story of This Decade." DanielPipes.org, February 1993. My take-off on the absurdities of the "October Surprise" conspiracy theory.
• "The Paterson 'Protocols'." New York Post, November 5, 2002. News-breaking column on an Arabic newspaper in New Jersey serializing The Protocols.
• "Plotters." The New Republic, July 6, 1992. A forerunner of Conspiracy in the context of the Ross Perot candidacy for president.
• Review of Barry Chamish, "The Last Days of Israel," in Middle East Quarterly, June 2001. A look at the wild-eyed ideas of Israel's leading conspiracy theorist.
• Review of Brendan O'Malley and Ian Craig, "The Cyprus Conspiracy: America, Espionage and the Turkish Invasion," in Middle East Quarterly, March 2000. Conspiracism leads to a misunderstanding of Cypriot history.
• Review of David Yallop, "To the Ends of the Earth: The Hunt for the Jackal." A nonsensical book claiming Ilich Ramirez Sanchez was a creation of the CIA, MI6, and Mossad.
• Review of Gary Sick, "October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan." A once-serious analyst goes off the deep end with a conspiracy theory-book.
• Review of Patrick Seale, "Abu Nidal: A Gun For Hire." The Wall Street Journal, February 18, 1992. Sabri al-Banna, the most awful Palestinian terrorist of them all, was really working for the Mossad. Right.
• "The "October Surprise" Theory." Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 2003, vol. 2, pp. 547-50. The last word on a once-major but now-forgotten conspiracy theory.
• "The Paranoid Style in Mideast Politics." The Washington Post, November 6, 1994. A forerunner of The Hidden Hand.
• "Those Danish Cartoons and Me." New York Sun, 21 February 2006. I recount how conspiracy theorists brought me into the Muhammad cartoon furor.
• "Who Set Fire to Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969?" DanielPipes.org, August 21, 2004. Reviews a decades-old conspiracy theory that still reverberates in the Middle East.
• "Whodunit?" Atlantic, May 1989, pp. 18-24. My first publication on this topic, a forerunner of Conspiracy.