Introduction: Mapping Conspiracy Theories in the United States and the Middle East -- I. The United States and the Middle East -- My Enemies Must Be Friends: The American Extreme Right, Conspiracy Theory, Islam, and the Middle East -- From Mosaddeq to HAARP: Some Aspects of the Conspiratorial Component of U.S.-Iranian Relations -- "Zionising" the Middle East: Rumours of the "Kissinger Plan" in Lebanon, 1973-1982 -- The Da Vinci Code, Crusade Conspiracies, and the Clash of Historiographies -- II. The Politics of Conspiracy Theory -- The Society of Death and Anglo-American Fears of Conspiracy in Gold Rush California, 1849-1858 -- The Function of Secrecy in Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories: The Case of Dönmes in Turkey -- Hizbullah Between Pan-Islamic Ideology and Domestic Politics: Conspiracy Theories as Medium for Political Mobilization and Integration -- III. The Promises of Conspiracy Theory -- Narrating the 'Crisis of Representation': The Cultural Work of Conspiracy in Larry Beinhart's Novels on the Bush Presidencies -- Small and Large Scale Conspiracy Theories and Their Problems: An Example from Turkey -- "It Has All Been Planned": Talking about Us and Powerful Others in Contemporary Syria -- IV. Travelling Theories -- The Transfer of Anti-Illuminati Conspiracy Theories to the United States in the Late Eighteenth Century -- The Judeo-Masonic Conspiracy: The Path from the Cemetery of Prague to Arab Anti-Zionist Propaganda -- Western Theories about Conspiracy Theories and the Middle Eastern Context: The Scope and Limits of Explanatory Transpositions -- V. Theorizing Conspiracy Theory -- The Politics of Conspiracy Theories: American Histories and Global Narratives.

What kind of man are you?": The Gendered Foundations of U.S. Conspiracism and of Recent Conspiracy Theory Scholarship -- Against the Cure -- Plotting Future Directions in Conspiracy Theory Research -- Bibliography -- List of Contributors.