With the possible exception of murder, nothing has so captured the dark side of human imagination as the notion that conspiratorial doings are brewing behind the scenes. And indeed, throughout history such plots have often been afoot: Someone, somewhere, always seems to have been skulking around in search of one or more like-minded individuals to join in an exploit to change the status quo. Some of these plotters did it out of idealism. Other conspirators acted out of anger, frustration, jealousy, envy, greed, or revenge. And some were merely dupes, or just plain crazy.

Ranked in order of historical significance, or because of their boldness, the one hundred real and imagined plots chronicled here by H. Paul Jeffers involve schemes ranging from biblical times to today’s headlines. Among the conspiracies recounted by Jeffers are the arrest and trial of Jesus of Nazareth; the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; Cold War espionage and dirty tricks; spectacular robberies and kidnappings from around the globe; the mysterious connection between Jack the Ripper and the Freemasons; and what many believe to be the “conspiracy of silence” surrounding a flying saucer crash and the recovery of “aliens” at Roswell, New Mexico.

History’s Greatest Conspiracies is popular narrative history at its most intriguing.