Hope and Fear: Modern Myths, Conspiracy Theories and Pseudo History

by Ronald H. Fritze

A myth-busting journey through the twilight world of fringe ideas and alternative facts.
 
Is a secret and corrupt Illuminati conspiring to control world affairs and bring about a New World Order? Was Donald Trump a victim of massive voter fraud? Is Elizabeth II a shapeshifting reptilian alien? Who is doing all this plotting?
 
In Hope and Fear , Ronald H. Fritze explores the fringe ideas and conspiracy theories people have turned to in order to make sense of the world around them, from myths about the Knights Templar and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, to Nazis and the occult, the Protocols of Zion and UFOs. As Fritze reveals, when conspiracy theories, myths, and pseudo-history dominate a society’s thinking, facts, reality, and truth fall by the wayside.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

280 pages, Hardcover

Published March 11, 2022

About the author

Ronald H. Fritze is an American encyclopedist, historian, and writer known for his criticism of pseudohistoric ideas.

Fritze earned his BA in history at Concordia College in 1974. He obtained a master's degree from Louisiana State University and a PhD from Cambridge University in 1981. He has worked at Lamar University in Beaumont and the University of Central Arkansas in 2001 as chair of the history department. He is currently Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Athens State University.

Fritze is the author of Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science, and Pseudo-religions (2009) a book which critically examines the pseudohistoric claims of Martin Bernal's Black Athena, Erich von Däniken, Immanuel Velikovsky, Atlantis, Christian Identity, Nation of Islam, and fringe related pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories. According to Fritze pseudohistory is a "charlatan's playground" targeting those too "willing to suspend disbelief" and slip into an "abyss of fantasy". Fritze considers such pseudohistoric ideas to be irrational and misleading the public. The book has received positive reviews.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always had an interest in conspiracy theories, not because I believe any of them are true, just a curiosity about where they have originated from and if there were any grains of truth in the stories. A read a number of books in my teenage years, including the thoroughly debunked, Chariots of The Gods by Erich von Däniken, and whilst they tell a convincing story, it is just that, a story.

Is there a New World Order and a secret and corrupt Illuminati controlling the world? Probably not, but I do believe that 21st-century billionaires have too much power to ensure their income streams…

Where populations are stressed and unsettled they look for reasons behind the disruption, mostly to try and make sense of what is happening. In this book, Ronald H. Fritze takes us through several of the most well-known conspiracy theories in four fairly substantial chapters on The Templars, Roswell The Lost Tribes of Israel and another on the Nazis.

I thought elements of this book looking into why conspiracy theories gain so much traction in modern society were fascinating. I thought that the writing was well researched and clearly and concisely presented. I did feel that occasionally it does venture into a lot of detail, in particular the chapter on the Nazis.

I especially liked the chapter on the Roswell incident and the way that the Air Force had kept changing its story, which fired the imagination of the people who believed they were covering up more than surveillance balloons. It does now seem to have become an industry in its own right in the town. Sadly, there is very little on the rise on QAnon, the most recent set of unhinged conspiracy theories to race their way around the world, just a few pages in the final chapter. It would have been good to have a little more about that and the speculation on the origins of Covid. A good introduction to the way that people can become all-consumed by these theories and suspend all rational thought.

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review of this book was written for The Folklore Podcast and can be found there as well.

Reaktion Books is a publisher well-known for delivering accessible, scholarly books on a wide variety of complex subjects. I have always been impressed with their output, and this title did not disappoint. Hope and Fear: Modern Myths, Conspiracy Theories, and Pseudo-History, out in the UK on February 14th, 2022, provides a nuanced look into the difficult topic of conspiracy theories. It tackles both why people believe in those theories and how they continue to thrive up into the modern day when it is widely-known that their very foundations are false.

Ronald H. Fritze, a professor of both history and religion at Athens State University, is uniquely suited to write about this topic considering how far back in history conspiracy theories have thrived and their tendency to be wrapped up in the vagaries of religious belief. Fritze’s history expertise allows him to enlighten the reader with the reasons how and why the theories have continued to grow and change within modern day.

From the start, Fritze takes care to define a variety of terms used by conspiracy theorists and academics alike. Additionally, he also highlights the common hallmarks of conspiracism to allow the reader to then separate fact from fiction within their own life. Fritze then dissects three conspiracy theories that have had massive impacts on history over the ages: the Lost Tribes of Israel, occult beliefs’ influences on Nazi policy, and the Roswell Incident.

While Fritze writes from a place of disdain for all conspiratorial thinking, he is upfront about that perspective, making a compelling case for how entertaining “Junk Knowledge” can often become a slippery slope. Nevertheless, Fritze does a wonderful job sharing how such knowledge proliferates and what belief in it offers to believers. For instance, the Roswell Incident section illuminates the original story of the crash and how disinterested the UFO community was in it until decades later. Promoting the idea that the crash was extraterrestrial in nature benefited the inhabitants of Roswell financially and socially, while reinforcing those more inclined towards conspiracy thinking inherent distrust in authority.

Hope and Fear is a worthwhile book that will allow readers to view the world through a more skeptical lens. Fritze adroitly outlines the ways in which the stories communities tell about themselves and others can be used for ill. It is only through recognizing these mechanisms that Junk Knowledge can be avoided so that the future won’t continue to echo the past.

[Ambrose Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not actually finished with this book. There’s a lot of reading in these long chapters. I zipped thru this book and now have to go back are carefully read the rest. Some good stuff in these pages.

[Dan Cassino · Rating 3 out of 5]

Individual elements in this book work really well, but it doesn’t hang together. Each of the rather long chapters goes deep into a particular modern (ish) false belief - the lost tribes of Israel, the alien crash landing at Roswell- but there isn’t much in the way of connective tissue between. Indeed, the chapters tend to repeat information that was laid out previously: the book spends a lot of time laying out definitions for “myth” and “legend,” then proceeds to tell the reader about the definitions again and again (and occasionally using the terms differently). Even within the individual chapters, the book occasionally gives the same information repeatedly.
Still, those individual chapters hold up well. Not everyone is going to be interested in a lengthy description of how Roswell became a by-word for alien conspiracies, but I’m game for it. The detail in these chapters is admirable, and not something I’ve seen elsewhere. I’d prefer more of a historical take on them- it’s jarring when the author talks about trips that they took relating to the materials- but it’s not too frequent.
The volume is bookended by attempts to tie it into current political and social controversy. I don’t have any problem with exploring QAnon and the false beliefs of Trump supporters as conspiracy theories, but the detail in these chapters isn’t anything like what we get elsewhere, and there isn’t any sense that the view of these vents is shaped by the understandings in the previous chapters.
As a collection of stand alone essays, this is fine, though it may be overly detailed for some readers. As a cohesive volume, it doesn’t hold up.

[Randy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topics covered in this book definitely worth writing, and the exploration was quite good, even though some sections, such as chapter 3, feel boring, probably because they're out of my areas of interest.

[Mel Stead]

Reviewed in the October 2022 issue of the Socialist Standard:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blog...