“John Birch Blues”: The Problematization of Conspiracy Theory in the Early Cold-War Era

Abstract

This paper argues that the status of conspiracy theory changed from legitimate to illegitimate knowledge in the mid-20th century. By tracing the scientific, cultural, and political discourses of the early Cold-War era I show that World War II, the Red Scare of the 1950s, and the rise in political extremism in the 1960s significantly contributed to the delegitimization of conspiracy theory. Normal 0 21 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE