Under the Eye of Power

How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy

By: Colin Dickey

Narrated by: Will Damron

From beloved cultural historian and acclaimed author of Ghostland comes a history of America's obsession with secret societies and the conspiracies of hidden power

The United States was born in paranoia. From the American Revolution (thought by some to be a conspiracy organized by the French) to the Salem witch trials to the Satanic Panic, the Illuminati, and QAnon, one of the most enduring narratives that defines the United States is simply this: secret groups are conspiring to pervert the will of the people and the rule of law. We’d like to assume these panics exist only at the fringes of society, or are unique features of the internet age. But history tells us, in fact, that they are woven into the fabric of American democracy.

Cultural historian Colin Dickey has built a career studying how our most irrational beliefs reach the mainstream, why, and what they tell us about ourselves. In Under the Eye of Power, Dickey charts the history of America through its paranoias and fears of secret societies, while seeking to explain why so many people—including some of the most powerful people in the country—continue to subscribe to these conspiracy theories. Paradoxically, he finds, belief in the fantastical and conspiratorial can be more soothing than what we fear the most: the chaos and randomness of history, the rising and falling of fortunes in America, and the messiness of democracy. Only in seeing the cycle of this history, Dickey says, can we break it.

Critic reviews

The Washington Post's "50 Best NonFiction Books of 2023"

"Roaming from the Freemasons to QAnon, this tour of American moral panics amid social upheaval and downturn is a bracing reminder that conspiratorial thinking is nothing new."--New York Times Book Review's "Editors' Choice"

"Dickey vividly retells the histories of many of the conspiratorial fables that Americans have used to frighten and mobilize themselves, offering complex, well-informed analyses."--The Washington Post

“In his timely new book…Colin Dickey writes entertainingly about conspiracy theories, real and imagined.”--The Boston Globe

"[A] poignant argument on how belief in secret societies, from the KKK to QAnon, influences American democracy."--Chicago Tribune

"We can think of no better writer than Colin Dickey...to examine America’s foundational obsession with conspiracy. From Salem to John Birch to Pizzagate, the “paranoid style” has been a part of this country’s identity long before it was given name by John Hofstadter in 1964. But what are we to do when people would rather ascribe their ill fortune to shadowy cabals of powerful puppet masters than the randomness of the universe? For Dickey, the first step is admitting we have a problem."--LitHub's "10 Nonfiction Books to Read This July"

“A vivid and intriguing recontextualization of a misunderstood aspect of American history.”
--Publishers Weekly *Starred Review*

"An entertaining, elucidating, and disturbing trip off the beaten path."
--Publishers Weekly "2023 Summer Reads"

"The author of Ghostland and The Unidentified returns with a colorful history of conspiracy theories in the U.S...In an engrossing narrative, Dickey explains how the human search for purpose can become comical, weird, and/or dark."
--Kirkus Reviews

Worth the “read”

I found this to be an interesting history of the human relationship with conspiracy theories. Some have the said the author is biased but that doesn’t mean it isn’t well-researched and fact based. I thought he did a good job of showing that conspiracy theories happen on all political spectrums. He has actual data on who in America buys into various current and past conspiracy theories (spoiler, it’s both republicans and democrats). He sheds a lot of light on how antisemitism plays into most conspiracy theories (he didn’t invent this - it’s plain to anyone who has studied this subject). I think some of the people who are critical of this book have simply encountered ideas they don’t like.

Humans have always looked to some unseen element to explain either catastrophe or 'the other.'

The cyclical nature is fascinating. And phenomenally depressing. It took me 5 months to finish this book because it explains, but cannot cure, the cyclical human attraction to moral panics. This is a problem that humanity may never solve.

Very well researched. Very informative.

Good book. Learned a lot. I will probably find the time to listen again. A lot of information and relevant history pulled together in one book.

Very biased

Interesting topic, but the author tried to explain very complex subjects, such as distrust by early Americans of catholicism, by attributing their growth to fairly myopic conspiracies.
I was a bit disappointed by the very plainly one-sided political views offered, and that the conspiracies presented, particularly those centered around recent political events, were almost always attributed to bigotry. That argument is getting very stale, and if the author were to look a little more closely at it he may see that explanation itself fits nicely into his own definition of a what a conspiracy theory is.
There are several excellent authors that present information without leading in one direction or other on the political spectrum. I would love to see this subject approached in the same manner.