Narrator: Imagine being in a rental car, driving through the Tunisian landscape on the way to a Roman amphitheater. Your colleague, an intelligent and skeptical cameraman, turns to you and calmly explains that the 1969 Apollo moon landing was a complete fraud, staged by the American government. He presents what sounds like compelling evidence: a fluttering flag in a vacuum, the absence of stars, all backed by supposed expert analysis. This very conversation happened to journalist David Aaronovitch, and it sparked an obsession. How could a rational person believe something so vast and improbable? What is the seductive power of a secret story, a hidden plot that explains away the complexities and accidents of the world?

This question lies at the heart of David Aaronovitch's book, Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History. The book is a fascinating and often disturbing journey into the world of conspiracism, revealing not just why people believe, but how these beliefs have actively distorted our understanding of the past and dangerously influenced the present.

Narrator: At its core, a conspiracy theory does something very specific. It replaces accident or complexity with deliberate, secret agency. Aaronovitch proposes a clear definition: a conspiracy theory is "the attribution of deliberate agency to something that is more likely to be accidental or unintended." It’s the belief that major events don't just happen; they are made to happen by powerful, hidden forces.

To sift through these claims, Aaronovitch champions a simple, powerful tool: Occam's Razor. This principle states that the simplest explanation is usually the best one. Conspiracy theories almost always violate this rule. For example, the theory that the moon landing was faked requires a conspiracy of staggering proportions, involving tens of thousands of NASA employees, scientists, and contractors, all sworn to secrecy for decades without a single credible leak. The simpler explanation, that a massive, publicly funded, and internationally observed scientific endeavor actually succeeded, requires far fewer assumptions. The conspiracist’s worldview is one where nothing is as it seems, and a complex, hidden plot is always more plausible than the more straightforward official account.

Narrator: While real conspiracies do happen, like the Watergate scandal or the Zinoviev Letter forgery in 1924, they are often messy, prone to failure, and eventually discovered. Successful conspiracy theories, however, are different. Aaronovitch identifies seven common characteristics that allow them to thrive and spread.

They often begin by creating a sense of exclusivity, dividing the world into enlightened skeptics who see the "truth" and the gullible "sheeple" who believe the official story. They rely on so-called expert witnesses, whose credentials are often exaggerated, and they work hard to gain a veneer of academic credibility. A key tactic is accommodating "inconvenient truths." For instance, when the producers of the 9/11 conspiracy film Loose Change were confronted with factual errors, they claimed they left them in on purpose to encourage viewers to "do their own research." This creates a no-lose situation where any evidence against the theory can be twisted to become evidence for it. Finally, many theories suggest that those who spread the "truth" are being watched or are in danger, adding a thrilling, high-stakes dimension to the belief.

Narrator: Perhaps no conspiracy theory demonstrates the devastating real-world consequences of these ideas more than The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This text, which emerged in the early 20th century, purported to be the minutes of a secret meeting of Jewish leaders plotting to achieve world domination through control of the media, finance, and the fomenting of wars. In the anxious and uncertain aftermath of World War I, it offered a simple, malevolent scapegoat for a world in turmoil.

The problem was, it was a complete fabrication. Journalists later proved that the Protocols were plagiarized from a 19th-century French political satire that had nothing to do with Jews. Yet, the truth didn't matter. The story "fit" with pre-existing anti-Semitic prejudices. Industrialist Henry Ford serialized it in his newspaper in America, and Adolf Hitler cited it in Mein Kampf as proof of an international Jewish conspiracy. The belief in this forgery became a core justification for the persecution and, ultimately, the genocide of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. It stands as a terrifying testament to the fact that the power of a conspiracy theory lies not in its truth, but in its ability to be believed.

Narrator: Conspiracy theories are not just the domain of fringe pamphleteers; they can be a powerful weapon of the state. In the 1930s, Joseph Stalin used this weapon to consolidate his power and eliminate all opposition in the Soviet Union. The Moscow Show Trials were a series of elaborately staged public trials where high-ranking Bolsheviks and military leaders were accused of plotting with the exiled Leon Trotsky to sabotage the Soviet state and restore capitalism.

The case of Georgy Pyatakov, a top industrial official, is a chilling example. He confessed in open court to flying on a non-existent flight to Oslo to meet with Trotsky and receive instructions for treason. His confession, like those of countless others, was extracted through unimaginable psychological and physical torture, including sleep deprivation and threats against his family. The trials served a dual purpose: they provided a scapegoat for the failures of the Soviet system, blaming economic hardship on saboteurs rather than policy, and they created a climate of terror where denouncing others became a test of loyalty. The trials were a "dark miracle," a state-sponsored conspiracy theory made real through boundless coercion.

Narrator: In the post-war era, the United States became a hotbed for conspiracy thinking, a trend that has only accelerated in the internet age. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 immediately spawned a cottage industry of theories. Despite the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, polls showed that a majority of Americans believed in a wider conspiracy. The idea that a lone, insignificant man could change the course of history was less satisfying than the belief in a powerful, hidden plot.

This pattern exploded with the events of September 11, 2001. The 9/11 Truth movement used the internet to spread its claims with unprecedented speed. Theories ranged from the idea that the government "let it happen on purpose" to the more extreme belief that it "made it happen on purpose." These theories relied on misinterpretations of physics, like the claim that the hole in the Pentagon was too small for a Boeing 757, ignoring the fact that the plane's wings would have sheared off on impact with the building's reinforced columns. The movement united a strange alliance of far-left and far-right activists, all bound by a deep distrust of the U.S. government.

Narrator: In recent decades, conspiracy theories have moved from the fringe to the center of political discourse. The 1990s saw a wave of conspiracies targeting President Bill Clinton, the most enduring of which surrounded the suicide of his friend and White House counsel, Vince Foster. Despite multiple official investigations confirming his death was a suicide, right-wing commentators and activists constructed an elaborate murder plot, alleging a cover-up to hide secrets related to the Whitewater scandal.

This playbook was refined and amplified during the presidency of Barack Obama with the rise of the "Birther" movement. This theory claimed, without evidence, that Obama was not a natural-born U.S. citizen and was therefore ineligible to be president. The movement was epitomized by incidents like the "Lady in Red" at a 2009 town hall, who brandished her own birth certificate and shouted, "I want my country back!" This sentiment revealed the theory's deeper roots in a feeling of disenfranchisement and a desire to delegitimize a political leader who represented a changing America. It showed how conspiracy theories have become a standard, and dangerous, tool for expressing political opposition and eroding democratic norms.

Narrator: Ultimately, David Aaronovitch's Voodoo Histories arrives at a stark conclusion: the most powerful and dangerous force in modern history is not conspiracy itself, but the idea of conspiracy. Real plots are often clumsy and limited, but the narrative of a hidden, all-powerful group controlling world events is infinitely flexible, seductive, and destructive. It provides simple answers to complex questions, offers a target for our fears and resentments, and gives believers a sense of possessing special, secret knowledge.

In an age where misinformation can spread across the globe with a few clicks of a mouse, the challenge this book presents is more urgent than ever. It forces us to ask a difficult question: are we equipped to distinguish a healthy skepticism from a corrosive paranoia? The answer may well determine our ability to understand our own history and navigate the future with clarity and reason.