Hidden hand

Hidden hand is an important expression in conspiracy theories. It generally means what, if anything, operates behind the scenes, or unseen.

For example, Daniel Pipes uses it in his article, The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy .

Another example is its use in the following scholarly article: The Hidden Hand: Subversion of Cultural Ideology in Three Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Women's Novels by Joanne Dobson, American Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Summer, 1986), pp. 223-242 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0678(198622)38%3A2%3C223%3ATHHSOC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M].

History
One of its early uses occurs in 1865 in the title of a work by author Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth, (1819-1899) in a work with the title Hidden Hand. In fact, this was her best known work.

The notion of the 'hidden hand' is discussed by Gisela C. Lebzelter in her 1978 monograph, Political Anti-Semites in England 1918-1939. In the first chapter of her book she discusses, and so titles it, "The Myth of a Jewish World Conspiracy." There she discusses the British association of the "German enemy" with the the so-called "'Jewish Peril'." Says Lebzelter:

The total identification of the German enemy with the 'Jewish Peril' is also illustrated in a piece of amateur poetry evoked by an enthusiastic reader's encounter with A. White's book The Hidden Hand, which depicted the alleged German penetration of international finance, trade and politics.

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