The Lindbergh kidnapping examines the incredible American hysteria over the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. This drama represented one of the biggest newspaper stories of the twentieth century. The lynch mob demanded blood and got it with the execution of the innocent Bruno Richard Hauptmann. This drama that unfolded was, at bottom, fully psychological as reality became a pawn to the whimsies of the collective psyche. Reviews: “A fascinating piece of psychological analysis that reads like an Agatha Christie novel. I couldn’t put it down!” —Marvin Forrest, Ph.D., psychotherapist, Santa Barbara “Dr. Kroth has provided a compelling analysis of the Lindbergh story that renders it in a completely new light. Prepare to have what you thought you knew thoroughly challenged!” —Jeff Kisling, Ph.D., psychotherapist, Palo Alt

The Psychic Immune System theorizes the existence of a hidden variable that acts via both unconscious and conscious processes to protect humans individually and collectively from mortal threats. Much like the physical immune system, the psychic immune system scans for danger, protects, heals, and ensures human safety and survival. Kroth argues that it isn’t just luck that has enabled people to survive the multitude of epidemics, wars, and environmental disasters that could have resulted in extinction, but rather the work of a complex system that has enabled us to survive. Scrutinizing a variety of past and present threats, Kroth points to traces of a systematic force that has protected humans. Recommended for scholars of psychology, history, and political science.

Implosion: denial, delusion, and the prospect of collapse is a penetrating look at contemporary collective delusions slithering across the American landscape. A delusion is a false idea about the world, a kind of intellectual “trance.” When an individual suffers one, the diagnosis of mental illness is not far behind. When a nation labors under them, we have a state of collective mental instability. This odyssey explores five gargantuan delusions infecting the American psyche: our understanding of our democratic political system, the Iraq war, the perception of ourselves as an empire, the musical genre of hip-hop, and our extremely precarious financial condition. In the final chapter, “Slip-slidin to dystopia,” Dr. Kroth reviews the seven major signs of societal collapse. These factors are combined to form “the American Dystopia Index.” When one looks at this metric, the transformation of the American dream to an American nightmare seems all but assured should we not awaken from our myriad trance states in time. Reviews: Jerry Kroth’s book, Implosion, is so exciting that I had to stop reading it for a few minutes just to calm down. Kroth does for his readers just what he says the truth will do for us. He presents an utterly compelling case for seven deadly symptoms which combined will bring America down and the world with it. However, he does it so well and documents his work so meticulously, that the excitement of learning the truth renders reading implosion a thrilling experience. As Yeats said in his prescient poem, “the Second Coming “The centre cannot hold.” Kroth promises us a second coming of hope and possibility. He exposes our march towards destruction and also a path for reversing that. Implosion strips away our illusions and denials giving us the truth, a chance to reverse our deadly course, and also a reason to hope. —Harried Fraad, Ph.D., psychoanalytic psychotherapist author of Bringing it all back home Duped! is incredible. You will want to shove it up the nose of every pompous, conservative, right wing, born again, love it or leave it jerk you have ever met. Dr. Kroth continues to approach the unapproachable. He holds no punches in describing our American culture's blind xenophobia; telling ourselves we are the best while betraying our most basic common sense as the evidence piles up at our feet. We choose leaders who simply tell us what we wish we could believe, and continue to act in ways that shorten our lives, steal our money, and leave us less secure than ever. In this crisp criticism of our collective confusion, we see how we have all become the chickens praising Colonel Sanders. We are simply outgunned by short-term corporate and political profits and power from the getgo. I wish there were more like Dr. Kroth aboard think tanks, committees, and boardrooms across our land, but if there ever were, they are probably planted in the Nevada desert somewhere. Enjoy the ride before your nickel runs out. —Steve Stelle, author of On Shaky Ground Totally eye opening, and, frankly, a very scary narrative. I never realized how deluded we are, and how a thick cloud of denial covers over our public discourse. This is a necessary read for any conscious American. —M.S. Forrest, Ph.D., clinical psychotherapist.

Essential reading for anyone interested in the most famous American crime of the twentieth century Since its original publication in 2004, The Case That Never Dies has become the standard account of the Lindbergh Kidnapping. Now, in a new afterword, historian Lloyd C. Gardner presents a surprise conclusion based on recently uncovered pieces of evidence that were missing from the initial investigation as well as an evaluation of Charles Lindbergh’s role in the search for the kidnappers. Out of the controversies surrounding the actions of Colonel Lindbergh, Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the New Jersey State Police, and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, Gardner presents a well-reasoned argument for what happened on the night of March 1, 1932. The Case That NeverDies places the Lindbergh kidnapping, investigation, and trial in the context of the Depression, when many feared the country was on the edge of anarchy. Gardner delves deeply into the aspects of the case that remain confusing to this day, including Lindbergh’s dealings with crime baron Owney Madden, Al Capone’s New York counterpart, as well as the inexplicable exploits of John Condon, a retired schoolteacher who became the prosecution’s best witness. The initial investigation was hampered by Colonel Lindbergh, who insisted that the police not attempt to find the perpetrator because he feared the investigation would endanger his son’s life. He relented only when the child was found dead. After two years of fruitless searching, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German immigrant, was discovered to have some of the ransom money in his possession. Hauptmann was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Throughout the book, Gardner pays special attention to the evidence of the case and how it was used and misused in the trial. Whether Hauptmann was guilty or not, Gardner concludes that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of first-degree murder. Set in historical context, the book offers not only a compelling read, but a powerful vantage point from which to observe the United States in the 1930s as well as contemporary arguments over capital punishment.

On the evening of October 30, 1938, radio listeners across the United States heard a startling report of a meteor strike in the New Jersey countryside. With sirens blaring in the background, announcers in the field described mysterious creatures, terrifying war machines, and thick clouds of poison gas moving toward New York City. As the invading force approached Manhattan, some listeners sat transfixed, while others ran to alert neighbors or to call the police. Some even fled their homes. But the hair-raising broadcast was not a real news bulletin-it was Orson Welles's adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic The War of the Worlds. In Broadcast Hysteria, A. Brad Schwartz boldly retells the story of Welles's famed radio play and its impact. Did it really spawn a "wave of mass hysteria," as The New York Times reported? Schwartz is the first to examine the hundreds of letters sent to Orson Welles himself in the days after the broadcast, and his findings challenge the conventional wisdom. Few listeners believed an actual attack was under way. But even so, Schwartz shows that Welles's broadcast became a major scandal, prompting a different kind of mass panic as Americans debated the bewitching power of the radio and the country's vulnerability in a time of crisis. When the debate was over, American broadcasting had changed for good, but not for the better. As Schwartz tells this story, we observe how an atmosphere of natural disaster and impending war permitted broadcasters to create shared live national experiences for the first time. We follow Orson Welles's rise to fame and watch his manic energy and artistic genius at work in the play's hurried yet innovative production. And we trace the present-day popularity of "fake news" back to its source in Welles's show and its many imitators. Schwartz's original research, gifted storytelling, and thoughtful analysis make Broadcast Hysteria a groundbreaking new look at a crucial but little-understood episode in American history.

Soon to be an FX Docuseries from Emmy® Award-Winning Producer Marc Smerling (The Jinx) featuring the author Errol Morris! Academy Award–winning filmmaker Errol Morris examines one of the most notorious and mysterious murder trials of the twentieth century In this profoundly original meditation on truth and the justice system, Errol Morris—a former private detective and director of The Thin Blue Line—delves deeply into the infamous Jeffrey MacDonald murder case. MacDonald, whose pregnant wife and two young daughters were brutally murdered in 1970, was convicted of the killings in 1979 and remains in prison today. The culmination of an investigation spanning over twenty years and a masterly reinvention of the true-crime thriller, A Wilderness of Error is a shocking book because it shows that everything we have been told about the case is deeply unreliable and that crucial elements of case against MacDonald are simply not true.

Mind Myths shows that science can be entertaining and creative. Addressing various topics, this book counterbalances information derived from the media with a 'scientific view'. It contains contributions from experts around the world.

This complete and up-to-date synopsis of the assassination of JFK (the actors, witnesses and investigators) weighs the different theories and looks at the drama as both a detective story and a defining moment in American mass psychology.

When it comes to extraterrestrials, UFOs, crop circles, and ancient-astronaut literature, most intelligent readers are repulsed by New Age hype, turned off by Erik Van Daniken, flustered by blatant pseudo-science, and deeply chagrined at how even the History Channel got dragged into the tabloid and sensational. Yet many intelligent, open-minded readers harbor secret interests: in the Great Pyramid and how it was built, in mythic tales of sky gods coming and going, from Ezekiel to the Rig-Veda. They are awed by the intricate fractals in crop circles, and they more than take notice when a NASA astronaut says he was trailed in space by UFOs. That questioning readership, however, swims in a vast sea of agnosticism—curious but not convinced. And there just aren't any books for them. None they can trust. None that reaches them. None that transcends tabloid fantasies to authentically treat issues with enough dispassion and scholarly erudition not to insult their intelligence. Here, Dr. Kroth gives the run-down on a wide range of evidence, and ponders how reliable any of it may be. Readers are left with all the elements to form their own equation.

On January 20, 1942, black oil mill worker Cleo Wright assaulted a white woman in her home and nearly killed the first police officer who tried to arrest him. An angry mob then hauled Wright out of jail and dragged him through the streets of Sikeston, Missouri, before burning him alive. Wright's death was, unfortunately, not unique in American history, but what his death meant in the larger context of life in the United States in the twentieth-century is an important and compelling story. After the lynching, the U.S. Justice Department was forced to become involved in civil rights concerns for the first time, provoking a national reaction to violence on the home front at a time when the country was battling for democracy in Europe. Dominic Capeci unravels the tragic story of Wright's life on several stages, showing how these acts of violence were indicative not only of racial tension but the clash of the traditional and the modern brought about by the war. Capeci draws from a wide range of archival sources and personal interviews with the participants and spectators to draw vivid portraits of Wright, his victims, law-enforcement officials, and members of the lynch mob. He places Wright in the larger context of southern racial violence and shows the significance of his death in local, state, and national history during the most important crisis of the twentieth-century.