Abstract
The essay provides an overview of recent work on conspiracy theories. Books that can be assigned to the genre of conspiracy literature are reviewed, but above all critical works, for example on certain milieus in which conspiracy theories are widespread, on the role of conspiracy thinking in everyday life or on ethnographic and cultural studies approaches. All in all, it can be stated that so far only a few works on the subject are based on their own empirical surveys, for example on the self-image, motivation, or socio-demographic background of the supporters of conspiracy theories.