Fantasyland : how America went haywire : a 500-year history / Kurt Andersen.
From the start, our ultra-individualism was attached to epic dreams and epic fantasies-every citizen was free to believe absolutely anything, or to pretend to be absolutely anybody. Little by little, and then more quickly in the last several decades, the American invent-your-own-reality legacy of the Enlightenment superseded its more sober, rational, and empirical parts. We gave ourselves over to all manner of crackpot ideas and make-believe lifestyles designed to console or thrill or terrify us. In Fantasyland, Andersen brilliantly connects the dots that define this condition, portrays its scale and scope, and offers a fresh, bracing explanation of how our American journey has deposited us here.
Record details
- ISBN: 1400067219
- ISBN: 9781400067213
- Physical Description: xiii, 462 pages ; 24 cm
- Publisher: New York : Random House, 2017.
Content descriptions
General Note: | Includes index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | Now entering fantasyland -- Part I. The conjuring of America: 1517-1789 -- I believe, therefore I am right: the Protestants -- All that glitters: the gold-seekers -- Building our own private heaven on Earth: the puritans -- The God-given freedom to believe in God -- Imaginary friends and enemies: the early satanic panics -- The first me century: religion gets American -- Meanwhile, in the 18th century reality-based community -- Part II. United States of amazing: the 1800s -- The first great delirium -- The all-American fan fiction of Joseph Smith, prophet -- Quack nation: magical but modern ? -- Fantastic business: the gold rush inflection point -- In search of monsters to destroy: the conspiracy-theory habit -- The war between states of mind -- Ten million little houses on the prairie -- Fantasy industrialized -- Part III. A long arc bending toward reason: 1900-1960 -- Progress and backlash -- The biggest backlash: brand new old-time religion -- The business of America is show business -- Big rock candy mountains: utopia in the suburbs and the sun -- The 1950s seemed so normal -- Part IV. Big bang: the 1960s and 70s -- Big bang: the hippies -- Big bang: the intellectuals -- Big bang: the Christians -- Big bang: politics and government and conspiracies -- Big bang: living in a land of entertainment -- Part V. Fantasyland scales: from the 1980s through the turn of the century -- Making make-believe more realistic and real life more make-believe -- Forever young: kids r us syndrome -- The Reagan era and the start of the digital age -- American religion from the turn of the millennium -- Our wilder christianities: belief and practice -- America versus the godless civilized world: why are we so exceptional? -- Magical but not necessarily christian, spiritual but not religious -- Blue-chip witch doctors: the re-enchantment of medicine -- How the mainstream enabled fantasyland: squishies, cynics and believers -- Anything goes -- unless it picks my pocket or break my leg -- Part VI. The problem with fantasyland: from the 1980s to the present and beyond -- The inmates running the asylum decide monsters are everywhere -- Reality is a conspiracy: the x-filing of America -- Mad as hell, the new voice of the people -- When the GOP went off the rails -- Liberals denying science -- Gun crazy -- Final fantasy-industrial complex -- Our inner children? They're going to Disney World! -- The economic dreamtime -- As fantasyland goes, so goes the nation. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | National characteristics, American. Popular culture > United States > History. United States > Civilization. |
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- 16 of 16 copies available at Missouri Evergreen.
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Show Only Available Copies
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
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Barry Lawrence - Cassville Library | 973 AND (Text) | 37884102979048 | Adult Non-Fiction | Available | - |
Camden County Library District - Camdenton | 973 Andersen (Text) | 31320003576167 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
Camden County Library District - Macks Creek | 973 Andersen (Text) | 31320003560674 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
Cape Girardeau Public Library | 306.097 AND (Text) | 33042004480789 | Adult Non-Fiction | Available | - |
Caruthersville Public Library | 306.0973 AND (Text) | 38417100301631 | Non-Fiction | Available | - |
Festus Public Library | 306.0973 Andersen (Text) | 32017000075979 | Adult Non-Fiction | Available | - |
Henry County - Main Library | 973 An2K (Text) | I0000000259674 | Non-Fiction | Available | - |
Howard County Public Library | 306.0973 Andersen (Text) | 34658000191952 | Non-Fiction | Available | - |
Keller Public Library-Dexter | A 973 And (Text) | 136284 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
Little Dixie - Main Library - Moberly | 306.0973 ANDERSON (Text) | 200411245+ | Non-Fiction Shelves | Available | - |