Fantasyland
How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
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4.2 • 161 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the acclaimed author of Evil Geniuses comes an electrifying, provocative history of American delusion—“an important book for understanding America in the age of Trump” (Walter Isaacson, author of Elon Musk).
“A frighteningly convincing and sometimes uproarious picture of a country in steep, perhaps terminal decline that would have the founding fathers weeping into their beards.”—The Guardian
A SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
How did we get here?
In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen demonstrates what’s happening in our country today. This strange, post-truth, “fake news” moment we’re all living through is not something entirely new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character and path. America was founded by wishful dreamers, magical thinkers, and true believers, by hucksters and their suckers. Believe-what-ever-you-want fantasy is deeply embedded in our DNA. From the Salem witch trials to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, from P. T. Barnum to Hollywood, from our fetish for guns to our obsession with extraterrestrials, our peculiar love of the fantastic has made America exceptional in a way that we’ve never fully acknowledged.
Written with gleeful erudition and tell-it-like-it-is ferocity, Fantasyland could not appear at a more perfect moment for understanding the politics and culture of twenty-first-century America, and how the lines between reality and illusion have become dangerously blurred.
Customer Reviews
Solid story:)
Coherent solid story of America inventing itself, and the current mischief:)
Fantasyland by Kurt Anderson
A fascinating historical perspective of the beginning of American history in the 1600s with the quest for gold to contemporary time where the Enlightenment not only produced scientific thoughts but varied degrees of imaginary cults scams and alternate realities which have led us to excessive pursuit of shallow amusements rather than meaningful ideas of substance and benefiting all of society rather than just ourselves a soul searching read Pat .lorello
United States of Fantasyland
How America got obesity, long commutes, anti-vaccination parents, Joseph Smith, essential oils, Dr. Oz, Oprah, relativist academics, Joel Osteen and the mysticism of the new left.
Its as if there has been a conspiracy to undermine reason and facts from the moment a few wealthy white guys decided they'd had it with their crown wearing master in London during the last quarter of the 18th Century.
Some of the chapters on religion get repetitive but Anderson's tracing of the roots of evangelism and Mormonism are so short and concise and accurate, lengthening them would be a waste of intellect.
The concept that technological innovations improve reality is false. Our tech masters have sold us devices and software to enhance our fantasies, to numb the unpleasantness reality. All you have to do is believe in something and if it gives you a feeling of warmth or excitement, well then it must be true. It must be good.
Goop on citizens. Hudson Filter that photo of your sedentary life. Devour the green coffee pills, ignore the intelligent design chapters in your kids textbook, get lost tracking down the real story of 9/11 on Infowars.
Anyone who tells you that it is all a lie or that science doesn't support the purported benefits is part of the conspiracy and must be ignored. It's a free country, believe whatever you want until the consequences of mass denial pile up and we are all forced to deal with the aftermath.
Fantasyland will be a weathered, hot wasteland.