Who Really Killed JFK?: Conspiracy Theory In Popular Culture & Politics

The United States has been a breeding ground for popular and controversial conspiracy theories beginning with the Cold War and extending into the era of 9/11. Trace the presence of conspiracy themes in popular culture over six turbulent decades of recent American history at a free presentation by Gordon B. Arnold, author of the recent book Conspiracy Theory in Film, Television, and Politics.
In the 1950s, Hollywood turned out a wide range of movies that tapped into conspiratorial fears of the Cold War. The theme found its way into political thrillers, melodramas, science fiction tales, and allegories as different as I Was a Communist Spy for the FBI and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. A few years later, the assassination of John F. Kennedy provoked a new wave of conspiracy-theorizing. Eerily, some people thought the president's murder echoed themes from the popular film The Manchurian Candidate, which was released only months earlier.
In later decades, the conspiracy theory theme remained firmly implanted in popular culture, as Hollywood tapped into real-world fears, anxieties, and skepticism and captured the American imagination. By the 1990s, conspiracy theorizing was a familiar part of the American political scene, suggesting that conspiracy theory ideas have an impact that extends beyond theaters and living rooms.
Gordon B. Arnold is Professor of Liberal Arts at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, where he has taught courses in film history and politics for many years. He is also the author of The Afterlife of America's War in Vietnam (2006).
Location: Main Library Community Meeting Room (ground floor)