Government Conspiracy Fiction Books That Changed The World

By Ann Lee


The Thirty-Nine Steps is one of the first books to explore the genre of the paranoid thriller. It was written by John Buchan and came out in 1915, and is the first of his government conspiracy fiction books that features the character of Richard Hannay, who appears in Buchan's other works. This ambiguously titled novel follows Hannay's unlikely adventures, full of action and heroics.

Some of the best tales about conspiracies take place on a small scale, rather than being part of an international plot for world domination. This small-scale approach was used effectively in Dashiell Hammett's "Nightmare Town". This short story was released in 1924 and is about a small town in Arizona with a plot to commit insurance fraud that turns deadly.

The Ministry of Fear was written in 1943, when people wanted to read stories about Nazis and World War II. Graham Greene's book is about the Nazis' method of blackmailing people into submission. It's easy to understand the title after reading this book.

Many people have heard of The Manchurian Candidate because of the film by the same title featuring Denzel Washington, but plenty of others knew about it long before that. Richard Condon wrote the novel in 1959, and the fear of communism definitely had a big influence on the writing of this book and its reception. The protagonist is subject to brainwashing to make him carry out an assassination.

John F. Kennedy's assassination was a tragedy, and an event that left a lot of people wondering who really did it. While conspirators can speculate to no end without ever having any proof of their beliefs, Richard Condon chose to express his feelings in a story called Winter Kills. This dark tale covers both what is known to have happened and goes into theories as well.

The Illuminatus! Trilogy came into existence thanks to the work of Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. These two men got together to write three books that were published over the course of several years in the late 60s and early 70s, and combines genres that were new and controversial at the time like psychedelia. This collection is one of the most widely read in the genre.

The Crying Lot 49 came out in 1966, and it is one of the shorter pieces by the author Thomas Pynchon. What this story lacks in length, however, it makes up for in the quality of the narrative and story being told. The story, filled with cultural references to the Beatles and other icons of the 60s, is about a mail service's plot that is over 500 years old.

For a book that breaks all boundaries and can change the reader's outlook on life completely, Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon is an incredible read. In this novel, he goes everywhere from high to low class, propriety to obscenity, and covers a wealth of complex information. This is not a very easy read because of the long character list and heavy topics, but it a great piece to make the reader think.




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