Some budding conspiracy theory scholars had begun to feel that one of Hofstadter’s central claims—that conspiracy theories were an aberration in American politics, embraced only by the fringes—had stalled research in their nascent field. Contrary to what Hofstadter wrote, his critics said, conspiracy theories have been a powerful force in American politics and culture since before the country’s founding, all the way back to the Salem Witch Trials.
