Who do you Trust?“Exploring American History through Conspiracy Theories” Web Platform

The B.Med Institute for Historical Research

Nature of the Request

Conspiracy theories are neither uniquely American nor a recent phenomenon, but they have, over the last century, come to hold a unique place in the United States’ history and culture. By studying when, why, and how certain conspiracy theories developed, were transmitted, and the degree to which they were accepted and by whom, we can reveal much about society at a given historical moment. Conspiracies illuminate the perceptions, anxieties, and prejudices of people and communities and how they and their institutions responded to crises, both real and imagined.

The B.Med Institute for Historical Research (“the Institute”) is seeking $500,000 from the Michael O’Malley Fund to develop and deploy a website that will use conspiracy theories as a vehicle for researching, writing, and learning about American history. This website will, ideally, be appealing to multiple audiences, but at its core it will be a sophisticated research and learning platform suitable for both scholars and students. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space museum served as the inspiration for this site. In 2011, the museum hosted a web conference on critical thinking in a digital age and used aviation-related conspiracy theories as the catalyst for discussion.1 The website proposed here seeks to take that idea to the next level. While there are many instances of academic and popular writing, documentaries, courses, and conferences on the topic, we have found no other example of a site dedicated to the study of the conspiracy theory phenomenon. We believe that by making available current scholarship, historical primary and secondary sources, teaching resources, webinars and conferences, and space for comment and publication, users will both be drawn in by the content and choose to return as the result of a positive intellectually stimulating experience.

Humanities Discussion:

People may create conspiracy theories for a variety of reasons, but many times they help explain a traumatic or unsatisfactorily explained occurrence. These theories can bring with them a whole host of associated problems and issues, but we as historians may be able to use the theories to open a window to a period of time, revealing details that may not have been captured in official documents or mainstream publications. Such details would almost certainly illuminate cultural, political, and economic anomalies of the period, but they may also reveal social and spiritual factors at play at a given moment. Significantly, the study of conspiracy theories may tease out seemingly intangible societal emotional responses—anxieties, prejudices, and fears, for example—to a degree not often possible on a large scale. Extreme emotions in response to extreme events are what encourage otherwise rational actors to search for (outwardly) irrational explanations.

1 Unfortunately the link to the actual discussions no longer works, but a summary of the event can be found at https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/alien-hoax-revealed-national-air-and-space-museum (accessed 7 December 2017).

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Conspiracy theories are difficult to define because there is a certain amount of contingency to them. In some cases, the logical step between the suspected existence of a conspiracy and the idea that there could be an actual organized plot is a short one. Other cases involve significant intellectual acrobatics. There have, of course, been theories about conspiracies that turned out to be true, a fact that is crucial to the understanding of conspiracy theories in general and that complicates efforts to engage with them. According to historian Kathryn Olmsted, “a conspiracy occurs when two or more people collude to abuse power or break the law.” A conspiracy theory would, then, be an unproven proposal about a conspiracy that may or may not be demonstrably true.2 It is the unproven aspect that allows such theories to punch above their weight, for it necessarily follows that if the proposal is unproven, there exists an evidentiary void. Even in relatively straight forward cases, it is rare that researchers are willing to state with certainty that there is only one valid hypothesis. Instead, there is usually some element of doubt that leads them to hedge. The doubt may stem from the questionable provenance of evidence or uncertainty that the views of all parties involved in the event have been accounted for. In traumatic or otherwise emotionally charged events, such doubts are magnified. This is the space typically filled by conspiracy theorists.

Conspiracy theorists do not normally seek out the easiest or most reasonable explanations to fill a factual void. Legal scholars Cass Sunstein and Adrian Verneule suggest that “a conspiracy theory can generally be counted as such if it is an effort to explain some event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people who attempt to conceal their role (at least until their aims are accomplished).”3 Richard Hofstadter, a historian who was an early commentator on conspiracy theories among political actors, termed such explanatory efforts as “the paranoid style.” He posited that the paranoid style was typified by fiery exaggeration, deep suspicion, and conspiratorial fantasy. It is tempting to write off such people as insane, but there is more to it. Hofstadter stated that “the paranoid style would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to people with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant.”4 What would it take for a comparatively normal person to buy into a fantastical conspiracy theory? In Hofstadter’s model, it would take an enemy that is “sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving...a free, active, demonic agent. He wills, indeed he manufactures, the mechanism of history himself, or deflects the normal course of history in an evil way.”5 Although this may appear hyperbolic, in most cases it would take such an adversary to convince an “average” person of sound mind to accept the idea of a highly complex conspiracy.

The website proposed here will seek to harness and focus the questions—and maybe even emotions—generated through the study of various theories while stimulating critical thinking about the events that generated the theories and reaction to them. We at the Institute believe a key part of participating in and with humanities content involves engaging with the subject

2 Kathryn Olmsted, Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 3.3 Cass R. Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule, “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures,” The Journal of Political Philosophy 17, no. 2 (2009): 205.4 Richard Hofstadter, The Paranoid Style in American Politics (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1965; First Vintage Books edition, 2008.5 Hofstadter, Ch 1.

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matter in a thoughtful way. To that end, the site will provide opportunities for the user to comment about what he or she has learned. This will take three distinct forms.

1. In each conspiracy-oriented zone of the platform, users will be able to record their impressions immediately in a reaction space. This will be similar in appearance and function to the ‘comments’ function after an article in a digital newspaper and will be available to anyone using the website. It will have an upper character limit, but will be only loosely edited to avoid spam and highly inappropriate communications.

2. There will also be a blog space in which registered users may comment on a topic related to the site’s collections or the associated literature. The topic will be chosen by the editorial staff and will be available for response for a defined period of time, after which topics and comments will remain available for review. This section will be more actively policed for relevance, though the acceptable length of submissions will be greater, permitting more thoughtful responses. Editors will review and approve submissions. Restricting access to registered users should limit the number of cranks and spammers.

3. The other way users can comment will be through a peer-reviewed journal-like space. This will not be a journal in the traditional sense of academic journals, but will be an attempt to exploit the potential offered by a professionally administered digital platform. Any registered user may submit a manuscript as long as it is relevant to platform’s content and conforms to writing conventions similar to other humanities publications. Topics might, for example, be historical (e.g. the social, economic, or political history surrounding a given conspiracy) or educational (e.g. using a conspiracy to teach a period in American history).

It is important to note that our primary goal is to engage and provide resources for a multidisciplinary field of academic specialists, students, unaffiliated aficionados, and the general public. Given the nature of the topic, bringing these groups together presents some risk of confrontation or protest, especially in the comment zones, but the risk is minimal and the potential for generating a productive dialogue makes it a risk worth taking. This site will not be an exercise in debunking theories. It will be, instead, an effort to encourage visitors to actively engage with ideas they may tend to either discount too quickly or accept without question, and to consider those ideas in a broader, more sophisticated context.

Although we hope that the site will be useful and entertaining, we also want to encourage users to reflect on how they receive and process information about historical and current events and to interrogate the conclusions they have formed about major events. To that end, there will also be periodic webinars and conferences (live and virtual) that will allow for cutting edge didactic content that complements the written portions and different zones.

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Project Description

Overview:

The layout of this website will be basic and easy to manipulate, but also sophisticated in terms of content and educational utility. The initial page and one level down will be much like the online presence of a good museum. A representative example is the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History website (http://americanhistory.si.edu/). Visitors to the Smithsonian site are immediately drawn to thematic tabs, news/current events, and the blog. Another example of how we envision the site working and appearing, albeit on a much smaller scale, is the website for George Washington’s Mount Vernon (http://www.mountvernon.org/), or at least the initial view down to “What’s Coming Up.” On the Mount Vernon site, if the user moves the mouse over the six main tabs, sub-menus are immediately visible that provide opportunities to view holdings, conduct searches, take virtual tours, listen to a podcast, and search the library. In the case of the conspiracy site, the initial page will present administrative details (e.g. membership and login), news/current events, instructions, and a general overview, but the main focus will be thematic tabs that take the user to specific conspiracy zone sub-menus (a rough artistic concept of the site is attached to the end of this proposal). While users will have the opportunity to use a basic and advanced search engine to discover items in the holdings, especially newcomers will be initially encouraged to explore the zones.

As currently envisioned, each zone will offer:

1. An overview section (museum label-style overviews and access to more detailed explanations of events or the period in question and to multimedia, such as live and archived presentations, podcasts, etc);

2. Primary source section (e.g. government documents, newspapers, letters, oral histories, imagery, links to website – this will be much like a museum or digital archive website);

3. Secondary source section (e.g. journal articles, retrospective media pieces, books, bibliographies, links to websites);

4. Educator resources and aids – password protected (sample high school and university lesson plans); and,

5. A comment space to record immediate reactions to content. Registered users will also be able to access the blogs within each zone.

The background and theme will be designed to evoke the ideas and imagery of “conspiracy.” One potential example of this concept is the image presented here (right). In this case, hovering over an image would generate brief description of the photograph and encourage further research. Especially the overview sections will function in this manner to avoid text overload. Users will be guided through the overview using various sorts of imagery (e.g. maps, artwork, photographs) and be encouraged at different

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points to review primary or secondary sources. It is important to emphasize that each thematic zone will be designed to be conclusion-neutral to help stimulate an atmosphere of debate and inquiry. Even on topics that have largely been settled, such as the Apollo moon landings, visitors will have the opportunity to interact with facts, opinions, experts in the field as well as the primary and secondary sources. Visitors will be able to consider—or reconsider—their own opinions and to more fully understand opposing points of view and the historical context in which the events occurred.

Audience and Educational Focus:

Conspiracy theories are both superficially and intellectually stimulating. Government intrigue and alien landings appeal to people of all socio-economic and education levels across a full range of ages. Although certain areas may deal with adult-themed material, a majority of the site will be appropriate for all users above the age of 14. The potential target audience for this site is broad, though we are using as our target audience—in terms of site navigation and reading comprehension—upper-level high school and undergraduate university students. History and civics courses (among others) would benefit from this unique resource, but we also expect academics and other practitioners to find it useful. The site will also be appealing and available to a large general interest audience. The primary goal, however, is educational/academic and the site will be designed to expose students and other users to primary and secondary sources and encourage the development of critical thinking skills. Teachers will be provided access to lesson plans (sample attached at the end of this request) and other resources that assist them in relating the material to grade-specific educational goals. Teachers will also have the ability to host class blogs to which students can access and contribute with their course-specific account. They may also submit research papers to the publication area.

The comment areas for each zone will serve not only to record impressions, but will also be part of the educational experience. The institute fully expects and intends that the site will be visited, even frequented, by true theorists, as well as the other target audiences. We suspect this will provide for colorful interactions and opportunities for additional social science- or text-based analysis of language, triggers, and the like. This area will be supervised with a light hand. User self-policing, editorial surveillance, and automated software will seek to limit access by spammers and extreme hate speech. Users will be limited to the equivalent of a long paragraph

Blogs—other than the course-specific ones—will be more organized and will address specific topics developed and curated by either staff or guest editors. Registered users will be limited to a maximum of about 500 words, which should be enough to form a reasonably complex, yet concise argument. Entries may be lightly edited and must be approved (mostly for relevance) by the blog editor prior to publication. The blogs will be open for comment during a defined period of time, after which they will be archived. All the blogs, including the archived ones, will be searchable.

Once the site is fully established, it will also host a journal-like function that will allow for the publication of substantive articles based on or relevant to site content. This portion will be available to registered users and academic institutions. Writing and publication standards will mirror those of established historical journals. Submission and acceptance will be on a rolling. Articles will be peer reviewed through a password-protected SharePoint site where reviewers

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will leave comments and suggestions. Papers will be published on the site as soon as the process is complete. We also anticipate an area for students to submit papers, approved by teachers and written as part of a conspiracy site-based curriculum.

The Conspiracy Zones:

The total number of zones will be fluid. The Institute anticipates that there will be a certain number of permanent zones for especially relevant or “timeless” topics. Other zones may rotate in and out, though even “retired” zones will be archived and available for research and review for registered members. We anticipate starting the site with two zones to make the development and growth of the site manageable. We anticipate no more than five active zones at a time. Samples of possible conspiracy zones are offered below.

1. Secrecy and Conspiracy: This zone will address government secrecy and why certain things are—and, in some cases, should remain—secret. Some examples will include weapons programs; war plans; research and development (R&D); diplomatic communications; intelligence operations, to include sources and methods; and, sensitive investigations. It could also address various leaks of classified information, such as the scandals surrounding Wikileaks, and the perspectives of both sides of the debate. Other examples might include declassified intelligence operation scenarios, examples of the results of classified R&D, and other similar activities. It will also address the legal protections and restrictions in place to prevent national security and the need for secrecy from being abused as a cover for illegal operations or to conceal programs that infringe on Americans’ constitutional rights.

2. Remember the Maine!: On the evening of February 15, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine, a battleship, exploded while at anchor in Havana, Cuba. Contemporary observers quickly labeled it an act of war and laid the blame on the Spanish. While 266 men were killed in the explosion, thousands more were killed or injured in the subsequent war with Spain. Although the sinking was not the only reason for the war, the Maine event served to rally public support and put pressure on the U.S. government to do “something.” On the surface, the U.S.S. Maine tragedy may not seem appropriate for a conspiracy theory exhibit; however, it is a perfect early example of how the press can be used deliberately to push an agenda and how even supposedly “scientific” evidence can lead observers astray. Shortly after the explosion even the ship’s captain cautioned that public opinion should be suspended pending a full inquiry. That plea did not deter the period’s “yellow press” from publishing highly speculative accounts, some based on racist depictions of Spaniards and Cubans, ensuring the American public would demand revenge. Rushed and inexpert

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F-117 "Stealth Fighter." Its development was a closely held secret until authorities finally acknowledged its existence in the late 1980s. When it was being tested, the F-117’s non-standard appearance generated a number of UFO reports.

This headline from February 17, 1898, is an example of the provocative reporting surrounding the Maine explosion. The account was entirely speculative.

technical investigations supported the press accounts and the government prepared for war, its first war as an emerging world power. Subsequent investigations indicated the explosion was not the result of sabotage, but of either a fire in one of the magazines or a coal dust explosion. In addition to photographic and documentary evidence about the Maine and the Spanish American War, a review of journalistic accounts, personal narratives, and government documents will round out the presentation and encourage critical thinking.

3. Conspiracies in American History: Even with legal protections in place, there have been documented instances in which officials have used government privilege to obfuscate questionable activities or to purposefully manipulate public opinion to achieve a certain end. These are the conspiracies that even the government, in most cases, admits happened. They also have a place in the conspiracy theory family tree because their existence makes it easier for some people to make the mental leap to an implausible conspiracy theory to explain a major or traumatic event. This zone will examine actual conspiracies as diverse as the “Red Scares” of the post-World War I period and 1950s and the Watergate affair. Other possibilities include the CIA MK-ULTRA mind control experiments of the 1950s and 1960s, Operation NORTHWOODS (the proposal to conduct an attack on U.S. soil and blame the Cubans), and the arms-for-hostages conspiracy commonly known the Iran-Contra scandal. In addition to historical documents, newspapers, and, in the case of Iran-Contra, images of a specific document shredder, this section will be one of several that will make productive use of video and oral history to help describe the catalysts for some well- and not so well-known conspiracies.

4. Covering up ET: People have reported seeing strange lights in the sky, to a greater or lesser degree, throughout recorded history, but the United States since 1947 has made speculation

about extraterrestrial life an art form. Specifically, many people who believe the Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials also believe the government is actively concealing what it knows about contact with space aliens. Other than the JFK killing, alleged government cover-ups associated with extraterrestrials are probably the most well-known and widely discussed conspiracy theories. This zone will focus on the supposed government conspiracy to hide the facts of alien contact and why, with multiple plausible terrestrial explanations, people might choose to believe the extraterrestrial one. For example, the modern iteration of UFO sightings and secretive officials attempting to mask the details

coincides roughly with the beginning of the Cold War. This, in turn, could lead to questions about what the alien stories might say about how the American public felt about technology, competition with the Soviet Union, nuclear arms, and an increasing number of classified projects hidden from public view. This zone will also look at official explanations, UFO investigations,

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Marine Lt Col Oliver North was a protagonist in the Iran-Contra scandal. Seeking to gain the release of hostages, some Reagan Administration officials secretly sold arms to Iran and used the profits to support anti-communist rebels in Central America. North’s secretary famously shredded evidence of the conspiracy.

This is a concept drawing of an alien spacecraft supposedly held at the secret military base commonly called Area 51. Its author, who claimed to work at the base as an engineer, has been discredited by the scientific community, but many continue to believe his story.

and even touch on popular culture by examining television programs and movies (e.g. The X-Files, Independence Day) that further the idea of a U.S./alien conspiracy. Sources will include oral histories, photographs, and formerly classified documents (both real and counterfeit).

5. The JFK Assassination: A conspiracy site that does not dedicate significant time and resources to JFK would be ridiculed and shunned by pretty much everyone even mildly familiar with the

genre. On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy transited downtown Dallas, TX, in a convertible limousine. As the motorcade passed the Texas School Book Depository, shots rang out. According to the official account, the shots came from the sixth floor of the Depository. Two bullets struck the president, one of which passed through and hit the governor of Texas, who was riding in the front seat. That is where the general agreement about the facts ends and even getting people to agree on those basic points can sometimes be tough. If the site visitor believes that most conspiracies are formed out of war or traumatic national events, this one qualifies. The identified assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was as a social misfit

who many doubt had the mental capacity or the marksmanship skills to kill the president. Of course, the public’s ability to hear for themselves was limited when Oswald himself was gunned down days later. Conspiracy theories usually focus on two elements of the narrative: the responsible party and the event itself. Speculation on who ordered the hit (conspiricists refuse to accept Oswald acted alone) ranges from Vice President Lyndon Johnson, to the Mafia, to Fidel Castro, to—yes—space aliens. The shot itself is also questioned as some witnesses claimed to see a gunman on a “grassy knoll” in front of the motorcade. This zone will include photographic evidence such as the car, the rifle, and official reports, as well as oral and video histories. It will also include interactive portions where visitors can learn about the national and international politics of the era, as well as official and unofficial accounts of the event. Since there have been a number of recreations, video evidence will include attempts to replicate the shot and the angle. Was it a longshot? Site users will be able to decide for themselves.

6. Faked Moon Landings? Almost immediately after NASA’s Apollo moon landings, skeptics began to question their authenticity. Most doubted the U.S., or anyone for that matter, had the technological ability to fly to the moon. Supposed imperfections in video and audio tapes added fuel to the fire. To be fair, the numbers of people who believe in a moon landing conspiracy have never even come close to those for people who believe in space aliens, a JFK conspiracy, or even U.S. involvement in the 9/11 attacks (see below). However, this conspiracy will show how improved communication allowed even fringe elements to have a voice. It also shows how, at a time when faith in the government was at an all-time low, even apparently positive stories like the space program could be spun as devious. The theory generally states that the U.S. did not want to lose face after dedicating so many resources to the space program, so it decided to fake the whole thing, as much for Soviet consumption as for American. The release of major motion

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A still from the famous Zapruder film, which recorded the president's final moments. The film shows in graphic detail the moment the bullet strikes JFK.

In 2002, Apollo program astronaut Buzz Aldrin punched a moon landing skeptic who was calling Aldrin a liar during a supposed interview. No charges were filed.

pictures such as “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Star Wars” showed that Hollywood could indeed make realistic movies about space without going there. This zone will explore how conspiracy is communicated, as well as the claims of the believers themselves. Visitors will have the chance to see questioned video and to hear official explanations and the conspiratorial version through interactive displays, and, of course, review primary sources.

7. The 9/11 Attacks: If there is a sensitive portion of the site that may prove controversial, this is the one. For some, emotions are still raw and others may simply feel that it is too soon for a non-memorialized treatment of events, let alone one dealing with conspiracy theories. However, the Institute posits that this is the perfect time to address conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks. Most of the related conspiracy theories suggest that the Bush administration at best knew about the attacks and let them happen and, at worst, facilitated them or even planted explosives in the World Trade Center and fired a missile at the Pentagon. Other theories suggest the attacks were the work not of Islamic extremists, but of Jewish or Israeli operatives. This recent event will allow users to interrogate an alleged conspiracy surrounding an event that some of them may remember using the same tools they used to examine the other theories, such as space aliens and JFK. Using the same cognitive tools used to examine alien conspiracies on an event that will likely be more personal will be a useful, if possibly disturbing, exercise. Actual objects from the attacks will, of course, be represented, such as a crushed fire engine and building debris, but a thorough treatment of the perpetrators, the official account, and the conspiracies will be available, as with the other zones. This area will address the 9/11 commission report, geopolitics, terrorism, and, of course, conspiracy theories. The lack of a memorial atmosphere will hopefully empower users to focus less on the tragedy of the event and more on the evidence.

Funding:

The O’Malley Fund grant will be critical to developing and launching this not-for-profit site. A significant amount of web development, historical research, public outreach, use and reproductions rights, and material acquisition will be necessary prior to launching the site. In addition to the grant being sought through this proposal, we anticipate seeking additional grants and support from the eventual host institution. Since the Institute anticipates significant interest, the site will, for a small annual fee, offer individual memberships that permit access to the blogs, webinars, and, eventually, in-person programming in different locations. Corporate sponsorships and fund drives will round out the funding sources. We believe this will be sufficient to cover staff salaries, web development and maintenance, and new research and acquisitions. While this may seem optimistic, continued interest in conspiracy theories from the Trump White House (“fake news”) to television programs (Stranger Things; The X-Files reboot) to scholarly interest in conspiracy theories, our analysis is that there is a sufficient potential audience to maintain and grow the site for the foreseeable future.

Staff:

Five paid Institute staff members—three researchers (history, politics and education) and two web developers—will maintain the site. Consultants, members, and volunteers will have the opportunity to curate or edit individual portions of the site relevant to their interests and expertise.

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In addition to Institute staff, during the initial development period, the Institute plans to partner with an academic institution and a web security firm to ensure the web architecture is sound enough to host the massive amount of data necessary for the sight to function as planned, to make sure the platform is on sound legal footing in terms of rights and reproduction, and to ensure that proprietary resources and user data are secure.

Consultants:

The Institute expects to form contractual and voluntary relationships with many academic and lay experts. The following are examples. We intend to have a total of twelve historical, political, legal, and educational consultants.

Peter Knight, University of Manchester: He is the author of Conspiracy Culture: From the Kennedy Assassination to “The X-Files” and also contributed a book titled The Kennedy Assassination for the Edinburgh University Press series “Representing American Events.” His edited collection Conspiracy Nation: The Politics of Postwar American Paranoia brought together an international group of scholars who are also engaged in the project of rethinking the standard, psychohistorical approach to conspiracy theories in American culture. He also edited Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia.

Kathryn Olmsted, UC-Davis: Olmsted’s research develops one of the central themes of twentieth-century U.S. history: the influence of anticommunism on American politics and policy and the idea of conspiracy. She is the author of Challenging the Secret Government, her first book, Red Spy Queen, which analyzed how the spy scare of the 1940s enabled anticommunists to move the nation’s political discourse to the right. Her most recent published book is Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11. In addition to her three monographs, she has co-edited a book on the history of the Central Intelligence Agency and published several journal articles and book chapters that highlight her overlapping areas of expertise: conspiracy theories, government secrecy, espionage, counterintelligence, and anticommunism.

Robert Alan Goldberg, University of Utah: Goldberg is the author of Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America and co-edited a two-volume set called Conspiracy Theories in American History. He has been the director of the University of Utah’s Tanner Humanities Center since 2006 and in 2012 he served as interim co-director of the Middle East Center. He also regularly teaches courses on conspiracy theories.

Lance Dehaven-Smith, Florida State University: Dehaven-Smith is Professor Emeritus at the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy. He is a former president of the Florida Political Science Association and is the author of more than a dozen books, including Conspiracy Theory in America and 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, CBS Nightly News, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and other national TV and radio shows.

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Work plan:

This work plan covers notional goals and deadlines. Some elements overlap as multiple Institute staff members will be working on different portions simultaneously. We fully understand the challenges inherent in this project and it is possible that legal and copyright issues will delay some aspects of the work plan. However, we have been working for several years through an NEH grant to develop the path forward and are confident in the timeline.

January-December 2018: Collection, curation, and development of the two initial zones. This process actually began in early 2017. The Institute will also hold public forums throughout the year about the platform and on conspiracy-related topics to raise interest and awareness.

January-July 2018: Platform development and testing of underlying search, research, and educational architecture.

July-September 2018: Focus group testing of different elements of the platform.

August-December 2018: Make a limited version of the platform available to certain high school and university history classes for testing and feedback. Once of their main tasks, other than evaluating the utility of the site, will be to attempt to “break it.” In this way, when the site is deployed, we will have already identified and fixed at least low-hanging problems and weaknesses.

January 2019: Deploy the platform with two active zones. More to follow.

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Website Concept: Below is rough concept of how the website would appear and be structured. The details are subject to change, but the basic structure of the final version will be similar to the image. The basic search will be comprehensive and conform to standard search protocols. The advanced search will provide options to search specific collections or to construct a complex search. The concept picture represents the cursor hovering over a zone with the pop-up above it. The pop-up has a brief introduction and direct links to the different parts of the zone. On the bottom of the page, there is space for news and blog information. The news scroll will include current news and upcoming Institute events/Institute news. Note that the photos are notional meant only to be representative.

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SAMPLE LESSON PLANConspiracy during the Cold War

Level:High School

Timeframe:Variable depending on complexity of final product. Probably one or two class periods to present overview of the Cold War. In-class and independent research in site holdings.

Objectives:Students will analyze and interpret primary and secondary sources in in one of the Conspiracy Zones appropriate to Cold War studies to determine what social and political factors may have contributed to a willingness to distrust government explanations of unusual events.

Students will respond to a writing prompt in a clear, thesis-driven essay that uses evidence from the provided sources

Standards:Primary Source Analysis; Writing Standards; Reading Standards; 20th Century American History; Comparison; Causation

Procedure:Review the conspiracy website with the students and discuss the difference between primary and secondary sources. After reviewing the site and general lessons on the Cold War period, ask students to evaluate and respond to the following prompt. They should support their conclusion(s) using sources from the site.

The period of the Cold War was a time a great uncertainty and rapid technological change. Official secrecy, surveillance, and the limitation of certain rights were necessary to the maintenance of order and conspiracy theories were simply fictions developed by disillusioned outcasts as a coping mechanism.

Optional Extension Activities:Hold a guided class discussion on what the students uncovered in their research. Did their research confirm or refute the prompt? Did students come to different conclusions based on the “facts?” Ask students to elaborate and (respectfully) debate. After discussion, ask the students to take the other side of the issue. Why might a reasonable person disagree with them?

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