Fantasyland

Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History by Kurt Andersen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The basic premise of this breezy, entertaining view of the past 500 years, is that America is unique in the world because of our insistence on creating our own reality.

Andersen argues that our history has been a unique blend of dreamers, deluders, deniers, optimistic and opportunistic people who have led us down a dark path where reality is not only denied, but considered secondary to fantasy. Starting with the Pilgrims in the 1600s and moving all the way up to present day; through the Salem Witch Trials and P.T Barnum and Disneyland and the flat-out envelopment of the country in politics as entertainment, Fantasyland is deeply entrenched and baked into the fabric of this country.

500 years are summarized through the lens of fantasy, starting with religion and Protestantism and the roots of America, moving to the Industrial Revolution and then a period he labels as “The Long Arc Bending Toward Reason (1900-1960)” before giving way to the 60s and 70’s and then winding up in an often-forgotten Satanic Panic of the 80’s. He touches upon many potentially controversial issues (he’s already probably stepping on many toes with the long section about religion) and through the view of the “anything goes” mentality of Americans, Andersen forms the first honest to goodness description that explains the country we have today, where science and reason don’t stand a chance against gut feeling and blind faith.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While reading this, I could watch something on TV or see something online and I could suddenly understand why things are the way they are: why people question respected medical professionals in favor of random information online. Why educated people are not trusted. Why science gets a bad name. How we got to be so divided and what we have to fight to overcome this.

Excellent.





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