What do you think?
Rate this book
The Encyclopedia of Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories
A complete guide to both proven and unproven conspiracy theories, from alien abductions and secret brotherhoods to global banking and voter fraud, documents and explores the broad history of conspiracies and their impact on everyday life. Simultaneous.
426 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2005
11 people are currently reading
148 people want to read
About the author
Michael Newton
468 books104 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
From Wikipedia:
"Michael Newton (born 1951) is an American author best known for his work on Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan series. Newton first began work on the Executioner series by co-writing "The Executioner's War Book" with Don Pendleton in 1977. Since then he has been a steady writer for the series with almost 90 entries to his credit, which triples the amount written by creator Don Pendleton. His skills and knowledge of the series have allowed him to be picked by the publishers to write the milestone novels such as #100, #200, and #300.
Writing under the pseudonym Lyle Brandt, Michael Newton has also become a popular writer of Western novels. He has written a number of successful non-fiction titles as well, including a book on genre writing (How to Write Action Adventure Novels). His book Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Florida won the Florida Historical Society's 2002 Rembert Patrick Award for Best Book in Florida History. Newton's "Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology" won the American Library Association's award for Outstanding Reference Work in 2006."
Pen names: Lyle Brandt, Don Pendleton, Jack Buchanan
Bibiliography available here.
From Wikipedia:
"Michael Newton (born 1951) is an American author best known for his work on Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan series. Newton first began work on the Executioner series by co-writing "The Executioner's War Book" with Don Pendleton in 1977. Since then he has been a steady writer for the series with almost 90 entries to his credit, which triples the amount written by creator Don Pendleton. His skills and knowledge of the series have allowed him to be picked by the publishers to write the milestone novels such as #100, #200, and #300.
Writing under the pseudonym Lyle Brandt, Michael Newton has also become a popular writer of Western novels. He has written a number of successful non-fiction titles as well, including a book on genre writing (How to Write Action Adventure Novels). His book Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Florida won the Florida Historical Society's 2002 Rembert Patrick Award for Best Book in Florida History. Newton's "Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology" won the American Library Association's award for Outstanding Reference Work in 2006."
Pen names: Lyle Brandt, Don Pendleton, Jack Buchanan
Bibiliography available here.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 31, 2010
I wasn't overly impressed by this book... I started to do a humorous review, you know the ,Black Helicopters are watching, the UFOs are leaving the Hollow Earth to watch me, etc. But...and this is a slightly ironic criticism, the book actually has some bias. The historical parts of the book (mentions of historical events) are told from a "given" point of view, rather than trying to be unbiased. For example...the Earps (and what conspiracy were the Earp brothers part of? Why the wiping out of the so called Clanton Gang or, the Cowboys). Instead of simply telling the story the Earp brothers are assumed to be the villains of the piece. They are assumed to be protected by a "friendly" judge etc. Just not the best even though i was looking for light reading...
2 stars. And it goes into my to sell box.
2 stars. And it goes into my to sell box.
November 5, 2019
A ridiculous book. He’s highly skeptical of some conspiracies while falling in head first with others. I wish there was some level-headed, disinterested, skeptical history of conspiracy theories. This book isn’t it.
December 15, 2014
Ok so I just finished the C's I was liking this book. It is comical and a little off putting at times. I look some of the stuff up just to see if people have made such reports.. Etc etc. I thought was okay up until i got to the Bloods and the Crips, but now I don't know the informationI have been reading may not have been accurate. I am not a fan of gangs but I am a fan of truth. I didn't even have to look the crap he wrote about those 2 gangs up to know that all of was incorrect! I have read about them before and watched documentaries. I know Conspiracy Theories arent "truthful" but this book had Conspiracies as well.. With a clear definition in the preference as a plot by one or more people to commit a crime (a little more than that but you get the jist). The author needs to get his facts right. I wonder what else is all wrong. I am not going to read it any further now It is the fact that if I had not come across that untruth and knew it just because I've read about that before and watched documentaries, I may have found some misinformation that matched his on the Internet and accepted that (I didn't so I don't even know where he getting his info from). Point being all the rest of this book could be misinformation.
In this book he writes about quite a lot information that consistently points at our government for being racist, intrusive, and corrupt. Constant digs at FBI and CIA. While I don't doubt that our government is that, clearly the author has strong personal dislike for the government. J. Edgar Hoover's name is mentioned on just about every page and the "Bush Dynasty" on just about every other.
Both clearly racist the author wants to point out and terrorist of sorts. Which may b true as well.
When doing a book such as this, writing the conspiracies as defined a plots by more than one person to do harm or commit a crime ( my short definition), one should be careful to present the facts and only the facts and not let their bias and opinion come through. The reader should be assumed to be smart enough to decide for themselves which side to take if any. If the facts aren't right credibility is shot to hell which is why I am done reading this book at letter C. When writing about the conspiracy theories the writer should be careful to report only what was reported and by whom, again without opinion or bias. In these cases there aren't any facts to report but the writer shouldn't write as if it is true story or it is one he or she believes. Allow the reader to decide. This failed for me. Clearly it was more the blatant misinformation. It could have been misinformation about Bull Oconner it wouldn't have mattered to me I still would have stopped reading. The facts ma'am just the facts!
In this book he writes about quite a lot information that consistently points at our government for being racist, intrusive, and corrupt. Constant digs at FBI and CIA. While I don't doubt that our government is that, clearly the author has strong personal dislike for the government. J. Edgar Hoover's name is mentioned on just about every page and the "Bush Dynasty" on just about every other.
Both clearly racist the author wants to point out and terrorist of sorts. Which may b true as well.
When doing a book such as this, writing the conspiracies as defined a plots by more than one person to do harm or commit a crime ( my short definition), one should be careful to present the facts and only the facts and not let their bias and opinion come through. The reader should be assumed to be smart enough to decide for themselves which side to take if any. If the facts aren't right credibility is shot to hell which is why I am done reading this book at letter C. When writing about the conspiracy theories the writer should be careful to report only what was reported and by whom, again without opinion or bias. In these cases there aren't any facts to report but the writer shouldn't write as if it is true story or it is one he or she believes. Allow the reader to decide. This failed for me. Clearly it was more the blatant misinformation. It could have been misinformation about Bull Oconner it wouldn't have mattered to me I still would have stopped reading. The facts ma'am just the facts!
September 16, 2014
Basically useful, I learned some stuff. But he's cribbing a lot -- the back cover advertises him as having published 184 books.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews