Cyberculture: Counterconspiracy – A Steamshovel Web Reader
Ed. Kenn Thomas
Vol 1. The Book Tree, California, 1999
ISBN 1-58509-125-1
$16.95 from Flatland
Vol 2. The Book Tree, California, 1999
ISBN 1-58509-126-X
$13.95 from Flatland
Two volumes of material which originally appeared on the Steamshovel Web site: a splendid jumble of conspiracy theories, research, debate and polemics packed together in a vast range of typefaces. Lots of photographs. All the usual suspects are here: Bracken, Keith, Thomas, Constantine, Martin – and a lot of names unfamiliar to me. Material ranges from Jack Kerouac to mind control and the quality ranges from the poor (though there isn’t much of that) to the seriously good. To give a flavour of all this, the first few pieces in volume 1 are: editor Thomas defending a UFO researcher called Sean Morton; a set of comments on the ‘fusion paranoia’ concept; a review of Bob Black’s Anarchy After Leftism; editor Thomas on ‘Reich and Little Rock’; a snippet on Cord Meyer, Mary Meyer, James Angleton et al; and a long extract from Charles Ameringer’s U.S.Foreign Intelligence: the Secret Side of American History.
The first volume is the better of the two if you want information; the second contains a couple of long graphic features, one on the murder of Officer Tippet done as a comic strip, which I could have done without and a second, a photographic feature on the Manson gang members. Of the two start with the first volume.