Abstract
Book Review| May 01 2023 Review: Hope and Fear: Modern Myths, Conspiracy Theories, and Pseudo-History, by Ronald H. Fritze Hope and Fear: Modern Myths, Conspiracy Theories, and Pseudo-History. By Ronald H. Fritze. Reaktion Books, 2022. 271 pages. £20.00 hardcover. Susannah Crockford Susannah Crockford University of Exeter Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2023) 26 (4): 120–122. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.26.4.120 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Susannah Crockford; Review: Hope and Fear: Modern Myths, Conspiracy Theories, and Pseudo-History, by Ronald H. Fritze. Nova Religio 1 May 2023; 26 (4): 120–122. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.26.4.120 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search Hope and Fear sells itself as a history of “pseudo-history” or what Ronald Fritze labels “junk knowledge” (14). Methodologically, this means taking a historical approach to conspiracy theories and broadly arguing that so-called junk knowledge has a long history. The book’s introduction serves as a bullhorn denouncing all that is untrue. Relying on psychological research, the first chapter provides some justification for why people believe conspiracy theories—despite these ideas being categorically false and irrational, according to Fritze. The subsequent chapters comprise the real meat of the text, however, which provides a historical overview on the myth of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, then skips between periods of European and American history: Inquisition Spain, Sabbatai Zvi in the Ottoman Empire, the Templars, the Freemasons, the Rosicrucians, the Nazis, and then Roswell, New Mexico. The field of western esotericism might link these disparate cultural and historical periods together, if there were... You do not currently have access to this content.
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