Andrew Mckenzie-Mcharg
Biographic Data
| ID | 1485229 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrew Mckenzie-Mcharg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrew |
| FAMILY NAME | Mckenzie-Mcharg |
| SIGNATURE | MCKENZIE-MCHARG A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Hidden History of Conspiracy Theory
Tracing the genealogy of conspiracy theory, from Machiavelli through the “paranoid style” to QAnon Truthers, birthers, flat-Earthers, the deep state, crisis actors, chemtrails, the Epstein files, Pizzagate, the Plandemic—it seems as though there’s a conspiracy theory for every situation. But what exactly is a conspiracy theory? And why is the term used to describe beliefs that are so very unlike theories (at least in the scientific sense of the w…
Interview with Martin Mulsow
This interview with Martin Mulsow, a renowned intellectual and cultural historian, explores the influences that channeled his literary sensibilities and philosophical interests into a career devoted to charting the overlooked or forgotten terrain of early modern dissidence, heterodoxy, and erudition. It considers how his own formative encounters with post-war German intellectuals and his integration into an international network of scholars pursu…
Early Modern Variations on the Theme of Complicity
In the long history of anti-Jesuitism, the accusation that the Society of Jesus endorsed assassination and used it as a means to pursue its goals hardened into one of the recurring topoi that were repeatedly invoked to malign the order. However, the Society was clearly not born with this stigma. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how in the late sixteen and early seventeenth centuries an interplay of political events and doctrinal statements…
Jesuits, Conspiracies, and Conspiracy Theories
This introductory article explores the thematic affinity linking the Society of Jesus with conspiracies and conspiracy theories. After giving a short overview of the historiography devoted to anti-Jesuitism, it draws attention to how anti-Jesuits vilified the order over the centuries on the basis of alleged conspiracies whose extent varied from the episodic to the all-encompassing and that were imagined and posited in ways that tended to be thems…
From Status Politics to the Paranoid Style
The decade extending from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s in the career of the American historian Richard Hofstadter (1916-70) was marked by a series of engagements with American right-wing politics. This article seeks to re-evaluate the evolution of Hofstadter's thinking over this decade, in part by drawing upon the recently discovered transcript of a BBC radio lecture that Hofstadter recorded in 1959 and that represents the first occasion on whi…
Priestcraft. Anatomizing the anti-clericalism of early modern Europe
This paper aims to take the measure of the strand of early modern anti-clericalism that was conveyed by the term “priestcraft”. Priestcraft amounted to the claim that priests had usurped civil power and accumulated material wealth by systematically deceiving the laity and its secular rulers. Religion as it was practised and avowed by believers in early modern Europe was left tainted by this charge since manifold aspects of religious practice and …
Putting a positive spin on priestcraft. Accommodation and deception in late-Enlightenment German theology
In the late eighteenth century the principle of accommodation became so closely associated with the historical-critical approach of Johann Salomo Semler (1725–1791), a prominent theologian at the University of Halle, that he has on occasion been deemed its originator. As some scholars have, however, noted, accommodation as a principle of scriptural hermeneutics has a far longer history, extending back to the patristic writings. What by contrast h…
Priestcraft. Early modern variations on the theme of sacerdotal imposture
The term “priestcraft” is one that belongs to the past – and its particular past, moreover, is one with which most are unfamiliar. Yet the term and its meanings occupy a place in history that remai
Cock-ups and slap-downs
In view of the negative connotations associated with conspiracy theories, what have been the effects of the term's entry into popular vocabulary in the second half of the twentieth century? Has the ascendancy of the term “conspiracy theory” been correlated with a reluctance to allege conspiracy? In this article, the authors use Hansard, the record of British parliamentary debates, as a source of empirical data in demonstrating a significant and s…
How to Sabotage a Secret Society
In 1789 in Leipzig, a slim pamphlet of 128 pages appeared that sent shock waves through the German republic of letters. The pamphlet, bearing the title Mehr Noten als Text (More notes than text) , was an ‘exposure’ whose most sensational element was a list naming numerous members of the North German intelligentsia as initiates of a secret society. This secret society, known as the German Union, aimed to push back against anti-Enlightenment tenden…
Cock-ups and slap-downs
In view of the negative connotations associated with conspiracy theories, what have been the effects of the term's entry into popular vocabulary in the second half of the twentieth century? Has the ascendancy of the term “conspiracy theory” been correlated with a reluctance to allege conspiracy? In this article, the authors use Hansard, the record of British parliamentary debates, as a source of empirical data in demonstrating a significant and s…
From Status Politics to the Paranoid Style
The decade extending from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s in the career of the American historian Richard Hofstadter (1916-70) was marked by a series of engagements with American right-wing politics. This article seeks to re-evaluate the evolution of Hofstadter's thinking over this decade, in part by drawing upon the recently discovered transcript of a BBC radio lecture that Hofstadter recorded in 1959 and that represents the first occasion on whi…
Priestcraft. Early modern variations on the theme of sacerdotal imposture
The term “priestcraft” is one that belongs to the past – and its particular past, moreover, is one with which most are unfamiliar. Yet the term and its meanings occupy a place in history that remai
Cock-ups and slap-downs
In view of the negative connotations associated with conspiracy theories, what have been the effects of the term's entry into popular vocabulary in the second half of the twentieth century? Has the ascendancy of the term “conspiracy theory” been correlated with a reluctance to allege conspiracy? In this article, the authors use Hansard, the record of British parliamentary debates, as a source of empirical data in demonstrating a significant and s…
How to Sabotage a Secret Society
In 1789 in Leipzig, a slim pamphlet of 128 pages appeared that sent shock waves through the German republic of letters. The pamphlet, bearing the title Mehr Noten als Text (More notes than text) , was an ‘exposure’ whose most sensational element was a list naming numerous members of the North German intelligentsia as initiates of a secret society. This secret society, known as the German Union, aimed to push back against anti-Enlightenment tenden…
Priestcraft. Anatomizing the anti-clericalism of early modern Europe
This paper aims to take the measure of the strand of early modern anti-clericalism that was conveyed by the term “priestcraft”. Priestcraft amounted to the claim that priests had usurped civil power and accumulated material wealth by systematically deceiving the laity and its secular rulers. Religion as it was practised and avowed by believers in early modern Europe was left tainted by this charge since manifold aspects of religious practice and …
Putting a positive spin on priestcraft. Accommodation and deception in late-Enlightenment German theology
In the late eighteenth century the principle of accommodation became so closely associated with the historical-critical approach of Johann Salomo Semler (1725–1791), a prominent theologian at the University of Halle, that he has on occasion been deemed its originator. As some scholars have, however, noted, accommodation as a principle of scriptural hermeneutics has a far longer history, extending back to the patristic writings. What by contrast h…
Priestcraft. Early modern variations on the theme of sacerdotal imposture
The term “priestcraft” is one that belongs to the past – and its particular past, moreover, is one with which most are unfamiliar. Yet the term and its meanings occupy a place in history that remai
From Status Politics to the Paranoid Style
The decade extending from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s in the career of the American historian Richard Hofstadter (1916-70) was marked by a series of engagements with American right-wing politics. This article seeks to re-evaluate the evolution of Hofstadter's thinking over this decade, in part by drawing upon the recently discovered transcript of a BBC radio lecture that Hofstadter recorded in 1959 and that represents the first occasion on whi…
Interview with Martin Mulsow
This interview with Martin Mulsow, a renowned intellectual and cultural historian, explores the influences that channeled his literary sensibilities and philosophical interests into a career devoted to charting the overlooked or forgotten terrain of early modern dissidence, heterodoxy, and erudition. It considers how his own formative encounters with post-war German intellectuals and his integration into an international network of scholars pursu…
Early Modern Variations on the Theme of Complicity
In the long history of anti-Jesuitism, the accusation that the Society of Jesus endorsed assassination and used it as a means to pursue its goals hardened into one of the recurring topoi that were repeatedly invoked to malign the order. However, the Society was clearly not born with this stigma. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how in the late sixteen and early seventeenth centuries an interplay of political events and doctrinal statements…
Jesuits, Conspiracies, and Conspiracy Theories
This introductory article explores the thematic affinity linking the Society of Jesus with conspiracies and conspiracy theories. After giving a short overview of the historiography devoted to anti-Jesuitism, it draws attention to how anti-Jesuits vilified the order over the centuries on the basis of alleged conspiracies whose extent varied from the episodic to the all-encompassing and that were imagined and posited in ways that tended to be thems…
The Hidden History of Conspiracy Theory
Tracing the genealogy of conspiracy theory, from Machiavelli through the “paranoid style” to QAnon Truthers, birthers, flat-Earthers, the deep state, crisis actors, chemtrails, the Epstein files, Pizzagate, the Plandemic—it seems as though there’s a conspiracy theory for every situation. But what exactly is a conspiracy theory? And why is the term used to describe beliefs that are so very unlike theories (at least in the scientific sense of the w…
History (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Art (6 works) · History (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Literature (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Law (5 works)