Hoax

“Offers a timely warning. When readers look back at this world of cruel, arbitrary justice, paranoia and sectarianism, they should be wary of indulging in the ‘condescension of posterity.’ . . . As Stater points out, believing in conspiracy theories is a part of human nature. Times change, human nature does not.”—Paul Lay, The Times “Oddly, perhaps, historians often present the Popish Plot with a kind of textbookish colorlessness. Mr. Stater’s achievement is to restore the plot’s fascination and to capture—after more than three centuries—the dread and incredulity felt by those who experienced it. . . . His accounts have the compulsively fascinating quality of a true-crime podcast.”—Jeffrey Collins, Wall Street Journal “A fascinating, entertaining study in its own right—thoroughly researched, full of colourful sketches of the leading characters, brilliant at recreating the feverish atmosphere of the times and wise in its assessment of the long-term consequences for English politics.”—Tony Barber, Financial Times “Victor Stater’s rollicking, imperious prose is both well-told history and a thought-provoking study of a world similar to our own.”—Madoc Cairns, Times Literary Supplement “Stater tells this grim tale with a historian’s command of sources and a thriller writer’s control of narrative. He skilfully weaves the story of the plot into the fabric of England’s religious history, as well as its party-political future. His prose is crisp and his judgement sound. . . . Hoax is deeply rooted in the politics and prejudices of the seventeenth century, but it fires a warning shot across the bow of our own time.”—Jessie Childs, Catholic Herald “Gripping. . . . Reading Hoax one is constantly reminded how vulnerable even powerful institutions are to the determinedly dishonest—perhaps particularly to those who justify their dishonesty to themselves as being for a greater cause—and how readily rationality recedes before the irrational when deep-rooted beliefs are brought into play. Might Hoax, as well as being a first-rate piece of history, help alert us to any latter-day Oates and Shaftesburys among us now?”—Mathew Lyons, The Tablet “A rip-roaring narrative account of the Oates conspiracy. . . . Victor Stater’s lively new book on the so-called ‘Popish Plot’ does a wonderful job of telling this story. . . . Stater is particularly good on the big set pieces—the courtroom drama, the executions, the street pageantry—culling dialogue from trial transcripts and setting the scene with enviable brio.”—Joseph Hone, History Today “Hoax is meant to be a rollicking read, and indeed provides a richly descriptive narrative of one of the darkest chapters in English history.”—Andrea McKenzie, British Catholic History “An extraordinary story of vicious lies manipulated by desperate politicians into a frenzy of disinformation. Stater tells it with verve and a magnificently tight narrative control. It led to more than thirty innocent Catholics being tortured to death. Few conspiracy stories have been quite so lethal.”—John Morrill FBA, Selwyn College, Cambridge “A fascinating study. As well as describing the progress of the ‘plot,’ and the investigation into it, blow by blow, Stater gives us a many-sided picture of seventeenth-century London. For anyone with an interest in seventeenth-century history—this book is unmissable. Let Hoax be a lesson to us!”—Liza Picard, author of Elizabeth’s London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London