How did conspiracy thinking become such a significant and surprisingly widely accepted form of political thinking, not only in the United States, but all over the world? What compels people to respond to devastating, unpredictable events - acts of terrorism, war, natural disasters, economic upheaval - with the conviction that nothing is a coincidence, nothing is as it seems, and everything is connected? "Conspiracy Rising" argues that while outlandish paranoid theories themselves may seem nonsensical, the thread of conspiracy thinking throughout American history is a both a by-product of their democratic form of government and a very real threat to it. From the Illuminati, the Knights Templar, and the Freemasons; to the government hiding aliens and faking the moon landing; to the New World Order and the Obama 'Birthers'; the book explores the enduring popularity of a number of American conspiracy theories, showing how the conspiracy hysteria that may provoke disdain and apathy in the general public, can become a source of dangerous extremism.