Lance DeHaven-Smith is a Professor in the Reubin O’D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University. A former President of the Florida Political Science Association, deHaven-Smith is the author of more than a dozen books, including The Battle for Florida, which analyzes the disputed 2000 presidential election. DeHaven-Smith has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today Show, NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, CBS Nightly News with Dan Rather, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and other national TV and radio shows.

• List of Illustrations and Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: High-Crime Blind
  • A Curious History
  • A Flawed and Un-American Label
  • Naming the Taboo Topic
  • Perceptual Silos
  • Causes and Consequences
  • The CIA’s Conspiracy-Theory Conspiracy
  • The Rest of the Book
• Chapter 1: The Conspiracy-Theory Label
  • Perspectives on Conspiracy Beliefs
  • The Assassination of President Kennedy
  • The Single-Bullet (or “Magic-Bullet”) Theory
  • The Assumption Someone Would Talk
  • Flawed Definitions
  • The Term’s Meaning in Practice
  • A SCAD Hypothesis
  • Reforms after President Kennedy’s Assassination
• Chapter 2: The American Tradition of Conspiracy Belief
  • The Political Science of the Founders
  • Conspiracy Theories of the Founders
  • The Sedition Act of 1798 and the “Burr Conspiracy”
  • The Dialectic of Corruption and Reform
  • Conspiracy Charges at Nuremberg
  • How Conspiracy Deniers Misread History
• Chapter 3: Conspiracy Denial in the Social Sciences
  • The Transformation of U.S. Social Science
  • Philosophical Perspectives on Conspiracy Theory
  • The Conspiracy Theories of Charles Beard
  • Popper’s Critique of the "Conspiracy Theory of Society”
  • Strauss on “Noble Lies” and “Salutary Myths”
  • American Neoconservatism
• Chapter 4: The Conspiracy-Theory Conspiracy
  • Subtle Speech
  • Decoding the Dispatch
  • CIA “Collaborator” John P. Roche
  • Popularization, Association, Connotation
• Chapter 5: State Crimes against Democracy
  • Scientific Conceptualization
  • The Victim’s Perspective
  • SCAD Conceptualization
  • Searching for Novel Facts in 9/11
• Chapter 6: Restoring American Democracy
  • America’s Family Secrets
  • Reform Where Law and Politics Meet
  • Selective Totalitarianism
  • The Struggle Ahead
  • A Simple Proposal for Reform
• Appendix: CIA Dispatch 1035-960
• Tables
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index