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Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History

Kurt Andersen (Goodreads Author)

4.08 · Rating details · 5,657 ratings · 1,001 reviews

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The single most important explanation, and the fullest explanation, of how Donald Trump became president of the United States . . . nothing less than the most important book that I have read this year.”—Lawrence O’Donnell

How did we get here?

In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen shows that what’s happening in our country ...more

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Kindle Edition, 429 pages

Published September 5th 2017 by Random House

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Aug 28, 2019 BlackOxford rated it really liked it

Shelves: american, epistemology-language, sociology, church, history

On Faithful Truthiness

Umberto Eco spotted it first in the 1980’s: The United States exists in a condition of hyperreality, within which the authentic cannot be distinguished easily from the fake (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...). In fact the fake is preferred to the authentic: it costs less, it’s more accessible, and its easier to clean. But Alexis de Tocqueville sensed it as a possibility 150 years earlier in his experience of the enthusiastic insincerity (or insincere enthusiasm; its ...more

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Sep 02, 2017 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

It seems like a great many of American citizens are living in a Fantasyland, a land where we can fool ourselves that those like minded people, people who share our beliefs, are n fact correct, truth telling. Seriously, how did we manage to get here, to a world and with a leader, who has taken his fantasies to a new level? The author shows us how this refusal to see other view points, often taking this to extreme levels, has always existed.

He takes us back 500 years to the Puritans, a group of Ub It seems like a great many of American citizens are living in a Fantasyland, a land where we can fool ourselves that those like minded people, people who share our beliefs, are n fact correct, truth telling. Seriously, how did we manage to get here, to a world and with a leader, who has taken his fantasies to a new level? The author shows us how this refusal to see other view points, often taking this to extreme levels, has always existed.

He takes us back 500 years to the Puritans, a group of Uber religious, who were convinced that they, and only they new the true path to heaven. The witch trials, where those who were different or who disagreed with the established truth were put to death. They must have been sent by the devil. Onto The Gold rush were many gave up everything g to follow the lure of a get rich scheme. The NRA, convincing many that they would be killed in their beds if they were not able to own a firearm, and if that wasn't enough that the evil government was intent on taking away our rights, if we start with the guns who knows what will follow. To UFO abductions, recalled memories, video games, virtual reality, and the internet, fake news and the harm this has all caused. So many other things throughout history. Our appalling habit to revere movie stars, even reality TV stars as heroes, I mean you have only look at the major amount of money the Kardashians have made, for doing and being nothing at all. He calls out those, like Dr. Oz who should know better but has instead turned into a panderer of stardom and the masses. Of course the biggest reality TV star of them all is now our President, and he continues to fire people almost weekly.

A man who is smart enough to understand some people's minds and play on that to reach the highest office of them all. I am not, however, going to turn this into my personal discourse on the President, but read this book. I think you will come to a new understanding of exactly how this happened and exactly what played into making this even possible. Think you will be as appalled as I was at the lengths people can go, how they are capable of fooling themselves and the lengths they will go to in order to defend their beliefs.

ARC from Netgalley.
...more

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Sep 16, 2017 David Rush rated it it was ok

Whooo! That was 442 pages of one angry guy venting.

The first half has some pretty cool history anecdotes and when he makes value judgments I almost always agree with him at least in the beginning. But the whole thing is like a really long rambling talk with thousands of historical and cultural references. Kind of like if Dennis Miller was funny or smart or not a conservative stooge, you know if he was somebody completely different..then he would be like this guy if he wrote a book. (Well that w ...more

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Jun 18, 2018 Stephanie *Extremely Stable Genius* rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018, non-fiction, favorites

I was born in the mid sixties, and I don’t recall anyone being overly religious. I don’t remember any of my classmates talking about Jesus, unless it was in reference to baby Jesus and we were doing a school Christmas play.

Our founding fathers were almost entirely atheist, hence the separation of church and state that they made damn sure to put in the constitution. They experienced religion mixed with government first hand and knew it was a craptastic idea.

Recently, Jeffery Beauregard Sessions, ...more

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Sep 10, 2017 Mehrsa rated it it was amazing

It's been a long time since I've tried to purposely read a book more slowly than I otherwise would because I just did not want it to end. This book was so riveting and interesting that I made myself savor it over a week instead of devouring it all at once, which is what I usually do. Yet I recommend it with a lot of trepidation because he demolishes every faith and every belief. Nothing is sacred--not even the word itself, which he believes is a troubling concept. There is a lot to disagree with ...more

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Jul 29, 2020 Always Pouting rated it liked it

I think the premise of the book is an interesting one but I'm actually not sure how much I bought into the argument put forth. I'm sure plenty of us who live in the United States question why we differ so much from other countries that are supposedly comparable.

I feel like the book did a lot of describing of various phenomenon that are examples of Fantsyland thinking in America but there wasn't as much exploration of explanation of what would bring about those things. That isn't necessarily a ne I think the premise of the book is an interesting one but I'm actually not sure how much I bought into the argument put forth. I'm sure plenty of us who live in the United States question why we differ so much from other countries that are supposedly comparable.

I feel like the book did a lot of describing of various phenomenon that are examples of Fantsyland thinking in America but there wasn't as much exploration of explanation of what would bring about those things. That isn't necessarily a negative but I was just expecting more argument around an explanation since the book title says "How America Went Haywire". There are some explanations like our increased religiosity and our moral relativism but I think I found those unsatisfying because they were also supposed to be examples of us being prone to flights of fancy.

I also don't know if America is unique in its tendency to be conspiratorial or indulgence in entertainment. I think Anderson provided some support for the idea that we are much more religious than peer countries but on the other fronts I'm not so sure. I think I would be more convinced if there was more proof that we were unique in this kind of questionable thinking.

I do think the author puts forth an argument with some merit, I just think that the book mainly revolves around making the case that we are more prone as a culture to fantasy thinking than explaining what might be the cause of that. I also think the argument that we're more prone to fantasy thinking could've been stronger if it had been more comparative of other cultures outside of the context of just religion and if the kinds of fantasy thinking he was including wasn't so far reaching. Is it really fantasy thinking to get plastic surgery? I remain unconvinced. I also think the argument could've been made stronger if examples of fantasy thinking themselves weren't then used as explanations of why we're more likely to indulge in fantasy. I understand that it might operate as some sort of positive feedback loop but then that argument could've also been spelt out much more clearly in the book. ...more

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Sep 10, 2017 Peter (Pete) Mcloughlin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 00001bad-things, 1500-to-1700, modernism, 1701-to-1800, 1801-to-1900, 1890-1959, nukes-and-the-end-the-world, 1960-to-1989, household-items, medicine

This book is a witty and diverting romp through the horror of our current delusional culture and broken system. It is fun and apocalyptic at the same time. The author is funny and hits you with zingers and trenchant observations about the collapse of our culture, government, economic system and prospects for a sustainable future as we fall into a culture of delusion where reality is just your opinion man. He covers in a funny way how entertainment, conspiracy theories, religious fanaticism, magi ...more

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Sep 10, 2017 Lauren rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: library, sociology-issues, us-twentieth-century, politics-policy, best-of-2017, us-history

Remember when 'viral' was a bad thing, referring only to the spread of disease? Same goes for what you read and watch and believe.

Andersen traces 500 years of cultural history that lead us to this moment where logic and rational thought are downplayed, where opinion equals fact, and where many choose to live in a complete "fantasyland". It's a trenchant analysis, and a very convincing one too.

Andersen notes that from the very beginnings - the Protestant Reformation, the European migration to No ...more

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Dec 01, 2017 Gary Beauregard Bottomley rated it it was ok

I am in the minority regarding this book. I found it tedious, shallow and worst of all familiar. The author is out of his depth in his overall story that he’s trying to tell when he connects all of his facts about the past. He has a lot of facts that he presents about how Americans have (almost) always been willing to suspend disbelief and fail to use sufficient reason proportional to the credulity of the belief under consideration.

Evolution is a fact. The theory of evolution by natural selecti I am in the minority regarding this book. I found it tedious, shallow and worst of all familiar. The author is out of his depth in his overall story that he’s trying to tell when he connects all of his facts about the past. He has a lot of facts that he presents about how Americans have (almost) always been willing to suspend disbelief and fail to use sufficient reason proportional to the credulity of the belief under consideration.

Evolution is a fact. The theory of evolution by natural selection is a scientific fact. Intelligent design is not science. ‘Climate change is a Chinese Hoax’ is absurd, ‘Vaccines cause autism’ is crazy talk. ‘Repressed memories are real and Satanist exists in large numbers because of that’ is conspiratorial clap trap. Every one of those statements is easily shown true by a quick Wiki search and of course made up part of this book. I still get queasy every time I hear Oprah Winfrey or Geraldo Rivera’s name because of the insanity they foisted on the nation by creating out of fictional broadcloth a ‘Satanic Panic’ fear within people who were willing to believe without sufficient reason, or foundation, or empirical evidence and they were manipulated by bigger fools than themselves. (I’ve subscribed to the ‘Skeptical Inquirer’ for over 35 years and almost all the recent silliness presented in this book had already been covered in that magazine with way more depth).

This book tries to use a fair amount of history, philosophy, science, religion, and politics when the author is telling his story. I’ll grant any one can be an expert on politics just as easily as any baseball fan can be an expert on baseball and I won’t dispute him on politics (I’d even say that I loathe Donald Trump as much as he says he does and probably agree with him overall on the mess we are in today). If you don’t believe me that anyone can be expert on politics just watch a substance free hour of Sean Hannity, or listen to three hours of hate by Rush Limbaugh. They’ll tell you they are political experts about everything, and they will also tell you that you don’t have to follow any other news sources because they are all you need in order to be full of hate as they are.

The author really didn’t understand science or philosophy. That bothered me immensely. Science never proves anything. It can reject a null hypothesis and accept an alternative hypothesis at 95% confidence (or 99% or six sigma if you are using the LHC, e.g.), but science never proves. Science never knows itself, but it can always be self correcting and open to new ‘truths’. At the turn of the century, everybody thought Newton was bedrock solid to the point of certainty so much so that Ernst Mach said it was a tautology. Einstein, of course, changed that. The author mentions Galileo and the church and the heliocentric model. I could tell the author had not read ‘Dialogs Concerning Two Chief World Systems’. That book is a masterpiece, but Galileo got stuff wrong in it (the earth’s waves are not caused by its rotation, e.g.) and the unfolding of science is more subtle then the author appreciates.

The author kept building a post-modernist straw man to debunk any version of scientific relativism. All of the scientific truths we had at the beginning of the 20th century got replaced by the beginning of the 21st century (the universe is expanding, the sun is 4.5 billion years (in your face Lord Kelvin!), nuclear fusion powers the sun, and so on, and so on). There is a difference between understanding and explaining. Feynman said we don’t understand quantum physics, but we can explain it to the 10th decimal place. Einstein (and Newton) said they understood the universe up to the assumed first principals. (Of course, that’s not exactly true, because Newton says he will ‘feign no hypotheses’ except for God, and Einstein takes time out of the universe).

Also, the author stated that Nietzsche was a relativist. People who don’t read him say that. Nietzsche thought "a picture of the world that organizes a larger order of it in accordance with its own principle of interpretation is more powerful and therefore real than the viewpoints it incorporates in itself". This leads to Nietzsche's view point of "perspectives". It’s not a relativist statement by most measures.

My real complaint on this book overall is that I don’t think the hate we see today is because we can choose to live in Fantasyland (be it color TV, fantasy ball leagues, homeopathic medicine, churches, video games, movies, Disney Parks, all mentioned in this book) . I think Hannah Arendt in her book ‘Totalitarianism’ gets at the causes better and that book was written in 1950 and this author did praise it and mentioned he read it in 2016. There’s no more dangerous slope then having a president undermine reality based news services by calling them fake news, creating a class of ‘alternative facts’, and undermining a free society by inciting the mob (48%) to hate the same people he hates. ...more

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Aug 22, 2017 Laurie rated it it was amazing

This is a very interesting, and, I think, valuable book to have come out at this time and place. Surveys he cites show that one fifth of Americans think the 9/11 attacks were an inside job by American government agents, and four fifths believe that the Bible is factual history right down to the creation story. Only a third of us believe that the current climate changes are human caused. Various religious sects believe all the others are heretic. The author states that between the 60s anything go ...more

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Jun 16, 2018 Chelsey rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I first became suspicious when I saw this book does not contain a bibliography of any kind.

If you're writing a book about our current era of "fake news" and "alternative facts," and how we became a society who tolerated that kind of thinking, don't you think you should cite some sources to back up your own claims? Otherwise, the reader has to take it on faith that what you're saying is true, that you're quoting things accurately, and that there's actually facts behind your claims.

The book starts I first became suspicious when I saw this book does not contain a bibliography of any kind.

If you're writing a book about our current era of "fake news" and "alternative facts," and how we became a society who tolerated that kind of thinking, don't you think you should cite some sources to back up your own claims? Otherwise, the reader has to take it on faith that what you're saying is true, that you're quoting things accurately, and that there's actually facts behind your claims.

The book starts out more historically-based, arguing that the type of person who settled America (fools willing to believe that America was filled with gold, and folks determined to practice their own independent religions, according to the author) was the starting point for creating our current "my facts are whatever I want them to be" society, that ultimately ended in electing our current president. There's not a lot evidence provided, however, to demonstrate how the former caused the latter. If we're so influenced by the beliefs of our predecessors, shouldn't Australians be more likely to commit crimes, since Australian colonists were in large part conscripted criminals? The author spends a lot of time on this idea, but doesn't provide any kind of psychological research that might indicate that a temperament like a fool-hearty belief in a gold-filled America and supernatural religion can be passed down, generation to generation.

Here are some other things the author claims are in part connected to the rise of Trump and "alternative facts:"
- cosplay
- Disneyland
- Burning Man
- superhero movies
- adults dressing up for Halloween
- jeans (which he literally calls "play clothes," as opposed to those sensible khakis I guess we're all supposed to be wearing?)
- video games
- the Internet
- Brazilian waxes
- Fantasy football
- the X-Files

And listen, maybe he's right! (I doubt it). But maybe, somehow, cosplayers (who baffle the author so badly he brings them up at least five times) really are more likely to deny global warming, vote for Trump, and believe that vaccines cause autism. I don't think it's very likely, but I can't say for sure unless someone does some polling on the issue. If such polling exists (maybe Pew is really bored these days?) it definitely isn't cited in this book!

Because that's the most ironic thing about this book. For all the author wants to explain how we've created a large portion of a society who believe that everyone is entitled to their own facts, the author also writes as though he's entitled to his, and we should just believe him, full stop. No need to verify the research. No need to show evidence, or include specific citations.

And if no one can see the problem with that, then we as a thinking society are even worse off then I thought. ...more

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Nov 02, 2019 Ross Blocher rated it it was amazing

Fantasyland is a sweeping, masterful explanation of America’s fascination with unreality. By examining our history and singular makeup (from an expansive 500-year vantage point), Kurt Andersen seeks to explain how we arrived in a post-truth, alternative facts, fake news culture with Donald Trump as president. Andersen can claim some prescience, as this book was well into its formation before Trump became a “serious” candidate and proved the premise. The phrase “Fantasyland”, a nod to Walt Disney Fantasyland is a sweeping, masterful explanation of America’s fascination with unreality. By examining our history and singular makeup (from an expansive 500-year vantage point), Kurt Andersen seeks to explain how we arrived in a post-truth, alternative facts, fake news culture with Donald Trump as president. Andersen can claim some prescience, as this book was well into its formation before Trump became a “serious” candidate and proved the premise. The phrase “Fantasyland”, a nod to Walt Disney’s creation but also a catch-all term for the alternate realities we construct, offers an explanatory filter that is simple and clear, yet explains much. This is one of those rare books that will change the way you see… pretty much everything.

Of course, the United States is not the only place where absurdities and flights of fancy can be found, but “we are Fantasyland’s global crucible and epicenter.” While our constitution and founding fathers were products of the Enlightenment, there coexists a strong, earlier core of religious fundamentalism, witch-burning zeal, and hunger for gold and the fountain of youth (Jamestown was a failed gold rush) that shaped our national character and preoccupations. While we laudably value free speech and personal conviction, we seem poorly equipped to counter those convictions when they pick pockets and break legs (to paraphrase Jefferson).

The scope here is truly staggering: Andersen intelligently weaves together people, places, events and movements that are the products and progenitors of Fantasyland, peppering each discussion with relevant details, quotes, fun asides, and his own sharp commentary. We visit topics as diverse as Martin Luther, the Puritans, witch trials, Jamestown, Anne Hutchinson, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Ann Lee and her Shakers, Joseph Smith and Mormonism, the Millerites and other end times prophets, spiritualism, Mary Baker Eddy (who was influenced by quack medicine before founding and discovering Christian Science), satanic panics, P.T. Barnum, Harry Houdini, snake oil, homeopathy, water cures, mesmerism, phrenology (a phrenologist told a young Ray Kroc - founder of McDonalds - that he would be in the restaurant business), speaking in tongues, Bugsy Siegel, Las Vegas, gambling, the lottery, Hugh Hefner, Playboy, breast implants, Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Oz, Ayn Rand, John Birchers, conspiracy theorists (Behold A Pale Horse had been an influential book for me in 8th grade and it’s fun to hear him discuss it here), Billy Graham, Ronald Reagan, Thoreau, Wild Bill Hickok, the Scopes trial, utopian societies, sentimental architectural, Walt Disney, Disneyland, the red scare, L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, Woodstock, hippies, new age, psychedelics, LSD, Carlos Castaneda, Esalen, Oral Roberts, Hal Lindsey, Jerry Falwell, doomsday preppers, gun nuts, David Koresh, historical reenactments, Dungeons and Dragons, Comic-Con, Renaissance fairs, LARPers, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, virtual reality, the WWF and WWE, Creationism, X-Files, Alex Jones, global warming denial, GMO panic, anti-vaccination, Burning Man, and so much more. Sharing thoughts and observations on these topics would make for too long a review, so suffice it to say that it’s a delight to see these ideas cascade and unfold into one another. With each exhibit, Andersen demonstrates how we actively replace the actual with the imagined and the idealized, to the point where it is hard to tell the difference.

While this book is a call to reason and evidence, it is not unilaterally against fantasy, which can and should play a role in a healthy society. Andersen quotes J.R.R. Tolkien, who said in a lecture after publishing The Hobbit: “Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of, scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy will it make.” Hear, hear. I, too, am a rationalist who values the power of fantasy to inspire, to expand our horizons, and to make us hope for a better tomorrow. However, it’s important that we never lose sight of reality in the process. As a society, we’ve tipped too far in Fantasyland’s direction. Hopefully voices like Andersen’s and other defenders of science and reason will prevail. There is reason to despair… but one can hope. ...more

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Mar 14, 2018 Mikey B. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemporary-society, journalism, religion, united-states

I have been to the U.S. several times in my life and have to admit that I haven’t experienced it like this book, although I did see gun stores and many churches in the Southwest. But traveling is selective; I love visiting museums and National Parks where one does not encounter the ideas and people in Kurt Andersen’s “Fantasyland”.

Kurt Andersen, like many politicians and pundits, stipulates that the U.S. indeed is an “exceptional country”. But by “exceptional” he really means “idiotic”.

The theme ...more

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Sep 06, 2017 Karla rated it it was amazing

If you're one of those people who believes that the current insanity we're living through in America is a new infection, Andersen makes a convincing case that it's a virus America's had for quite some time. In fact, he asserts that it's part of our DNA and the outbreaks have cropped up in different forms over time since our "discovery" back in the 15th century. Europe sent over their best and the world's never been the same since.

His case is particularly solid when describing the post-war Boomer ...more

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Nov 16, 2017 Leo Walsh rated it really liked it

A fun romp through "post-truth" America, where people make millions off of Americans' gullibility. Where Karl Rove, a White House official, can quip that "what we call the 'reality-based community,' where people believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." have it wrong. Because, according to Rove, "That's not the way the world really works anymore."

In this America, people believe in easily-debunked fact-and-logic-free nonsense — like UFO's, the Illuminati cr ...more

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Sep 23, 2017 Kressel Housman rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: hollywood, non-fiction, history, the-sixties

I've been a fan of Kurt Andersen's radio show "Studio 360" for years, especially his "American Icons" series, so when I heard him promoting this book, I ordered it from my library immediately. What I did not realize, though, was that it was the perfect follow-up to the book I'd just finished because it picks up where that one was set: in the Puritan colonies. Roger Williams gets only two mentions in this book, but it's all about the down side of his legacy of "soul liberty." If everyone is allow I've been a fan of Kurt Andersen's radio show "Studio 360" for years, especially his "American Icons" series, so when I heard him promoting this book, I ordered it from my library immediately. What I did not realize, though, was that it was the perfect follow-up to the book I'd just finished because it picks up where that one was set: in the Puritan colonies. Roger Williams gets only two mentions in this book, but it's all about the down side of his legacy of "soul liberty." If everyone is allowed the freedom to pursue his or her own spiritual truth, that opens the door to all kinds of crackpot beliefs and eventually devolves into the world of "alternative facts" as we now know it.

Andersen covers every bout of irrationality in American history: the fanatic Puritans, the founding of Mormonism, the phenomenon of speaking in tongues, the Scopes monkey trial, the 60's and the New Age, the rise of the religious right, and climate change denial. Andersen claims to be an agnostic, not a crusading atheist, but religion in general and Protestantism in particular come out looking pretty bad in this book.

Another of its major themes is how much these movements gained momentum because of the entertainment industry. Show business was once made by vaudevillian hucksters like P.T. Barnum, but the lines between fantasy and reality really blurred with the advent of television. I was a kid in the 70's, pre-Internet when TV was still king, and my memoir contains quite a bit about play-acting TV shows and how much I lived in my fantasies. When I read Kurt Andersen's observations, I felt like I could never publish my own thoughts on the subject because they seem so unoriginal. On the other hand, I can stop thinking of myself as such a weirdo because I was just a product of my times. Childhood has been extended since the Baby Boom.

Since this book covers 500 years of American history in 450 pages, it's impossible for me to do it justice with a simple review, but I do want to highlight just one of Andersen's concepts. He divides people into three categories: the believers, the cynics, and the squishies. The believers actually buy into the "party line," and that goes for virtuous worldviews as well as false ones. The cynics talk the language of the believers, but they're manipulating them for their own ends. The squishies are moral relativists, often found in academic or liberal circles, who are inclined to say, "Everyone has his own truth." Andersen says the squishies have been silent too long. His book is a cry to call out the cynics, the hucksters, and the liars of the world and say, "Facts are facts; there are no alternatives" and/or "Climate change is real." The world is in a perilous position, and we've got to turn it around. And even a religious believer like me can be part of it. ...more

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Oct 19, 2017 Dennis Diehl rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, history

Unfortunately, those with the most to gain from Fantasyland are those most likely to never read it.

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Sep 30, 2017 Todd N rated it it was amazing

Well, this has got to be the longest Spy Magazine article I have ever read. It’s too bad the book jacket doesn’t have a Photoshopped picture of Hillary and Trump on it. Come to think of it, there must be several good ones in the Spy archives left over from the 80s and 90s.

The “Fantasyland” of the title is America, of course — the place where reality has a well-known liberal bias. The place where Republicans think it is ridiculous Russia could have interfered in the latest election, while at the ...more

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Oct 22, 2017 Robert Gustavo rated it it was ok

I don’t know what I expected, given the title, but the author is basically an asshole speaking to the converted.

The premise is fairly straightforward — Protestantism makes each person the ultimate authority on The Truth, and that founding America on Protestantism has led to an America where facts and figures are a matter of opinion. And, there is probably a decent argument to be made along those lines.

But, Kurt Andersen doesn’t make that argument well, because he’s more interested in scoring po ...more

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Nov 16, 2017 Kusaimamekirai rated it it was amazing

I’m a big fan of NBA basketball. Earlier this year a seemingly thoughtful star athlete on the Cleveland Cavaliers named Kyrie Irving (who briefly attended the prestigious Duke University), made waves at a press conference after a game. Somehow the conversation had turned to science and Irving, to the astonishment of those in attendance claimed because he had traveled all around the world multiple times he could say that the world is flat, not round.
This triggered a string of tweets by other N I’m a big fan of NBA basketball. Earlier this year a seemingly thoughtful star athlete on the Cleveland Cavaliers named Kyrie Irving (who briefly attended the prestigious Duke University), made waves at a press conference after a game. Somehow the conversation had turned to science and Irving, to the astonishment of those in attendance claimed because he had traveled all around the world multiple times he could say that the world is flat, not round.
This triggered a string of tweets by other NBA players agreeing with his statement. One player’s response in particular was instructive. When told there are numerous photographs of a round earth he responded:

“Who’s to say that picture is telling the truth? I can make a round picture with my iPhone today and make it look round. So I don’t know. I’m not saying I think it’s flat or round. I don’t know. But it could be.”

How do college educated, and otherwise articulate people like this come to stop trusting in objective reality?
Such is the subject of Kurt Andersen’s excellent book “Fantasyland”.
In the book, he lays out the argument that America’s seemingly having lost it’s belief in objective truth, if not it’s collective sanity, isn’t a new phenomenon. Rather, this has been a slow burning process that started with the very origins of the idea of America. The first settlers were in every sense fundamentalist religious purists who sought to establish a theocracy in the New World. Within this group even more radical groups splintered off until the idea of a theocracy seemed relatively tame compared to the belief in demon possession, witches, and signs from God that proliferated. It just got worse from there.
This book is an extremely comprehensive century by century roadmap that is difficult to lay out in a single review but suffice it to say that these fantasies by the first Americans laid the groundwork for all kinds of fringe groups later on. Mormons, snake oil salesmen, repressed memory hucksters, UFO believers, televangelists, hippies, new age medicine, and so many others. What they all share in common is the belief that truth is relative. Or as the author of the self help bestseller “The Secret” says, if you believe it’s true than it’s true.
Or as one of the poster children for moral relativism Deepak Chopra once said

“It’s not just the interpretation of objective reality that is subjective, objective reality per se is a concept of reality we have created subjectively.”

Some may argue, as Thomas Jefferson did, that “if it doesn’t pick my pocket or break my leg” it’s no big deal. Just let people get on with it. Fringe belief systems have always existed but what they lacked was a way to contact other believers and spread their ideas. With the internet, that is no longer true. As Andersen argues, there are now very real world consequences for having no belief in objective truth. Whether it manifests in violence or an erosion of trust in the institutions that hold up our democracy, every person being their own island of truth is unsustainable in the digital age.

Andersen makes an important distinction:

“Pre-Internet information systems, in which accuracy and credibility were determined mainly by experts or otherwise designated deciders, had terrible flaws and annoyances, including complacency, blind spots, snobbishness, and bigotry. But those gates and gatekeepers also managed to keep the worst hogwash out of our mainstream.”

As depressing as this may all seem, Andersen is ultimately hopeful. The Dark Ages spawned the Enlightenment. America has self corrected itself on multiple occasions from regulating and outlawing quack medicines to pushing back on anti-vaccine activists. America in the end always seems to come back to rationality after dipping its feet in the waters of collective madness. Is there another correction coming? We can only wait and hope. ...more

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Dec 21, 2017 Heidi Ward rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: library, 21st-century, reviewed, politics, nonfiction, philosophy-and-theology, history, obtain-copy, best-of-2017, cultural-studies

(Trigger warning for fundamentalists, cosplayers, climate change deniers, Reiki practitioners, anti-vaxxers, humorless socialists, Scientologists, and Trump true believers.)

This book couldn't have hit shelves at a more perfect, pertinent time. Andersen traces the lineage of American super-credulity all the way back to its founding folly: "America" as we know it was seeded with the hopes dreams of an extreme religious sect, with a fervent belief in not just God, but their right to worship their o (Trigger warning for fundamentalists, cosplayers, climate change deniers, Reiki practitioners, anti-vaxxers, humorless socialists, Scientologists, and Trump true believers.)

This book couldn't have hit shelves at a more perfect, pertinent time. Andersen traces the lineage of American super-credulity all the way back to its founding folly: "America" as we know it was seeded with the hopes dreams of an extreme religious sect, with a fervent belief in not just God, but their right to worship their own, interpreted version of said God. Though the works of our governmental founding fathers tried to temper our enthusiasm with rational humanism, it was already too late. We were believers, and we believed what we liked. Throw in in some apocalypse cults, a bottle of patent medicine, Spiritualism, tabloids, crystal healing, and a few hits of good old windowpane blotter -- voila!, the recipe for our post-reality USA.

Andersen's history is dizzyingly informative, long and deep and wide. He hits all the crazy high points: witch hunts and red scares, "The Great Awakening," Mormons and Scientology and Esalen, Biblical literalism, "The End Times" and speaking in tongues, "Manifest Destiny," hippies, hallucinogens and homeopathy,"Satanic Panic" and "recovered memory" therapy, postmodern relativism, pyramid schemes and pyramid power. The assumed veracity of The Bible, "Chariots of the Gods" and "The X-Files." So when you put it that way . . . wow. Americans be trippin'.

Certainly most of us are guilty of some kind of magical thinking, even if it's just throwing salt over your shoulder or reading your horoscope or buying a lottery ticket. Mostly harmless. But now's a good time to ask ourselves how exactly does all this enthusiastic nuttiness intersect with America as a fiercely democratic nation? A country deeply devoted to the tenet that you have the God-given right to construct your own reality? Believers that even "alternative facts" should have their place in arenas of rational discourse?

It would seem those attitudes have finally resulted in the election to our highest office of real estate and reality TV "entrepreneur" Donald Trump (and his clown-car of sycophants). Now the most ham-handed, dangerously unprepared and morally void huckster of them all is holding the faith (and fate) of our country in his careless, avaricious, tiny hands.

From the start, Americans' strong need to believe has had a dark flip side: we're also born to be suckered by shiny lies that distract from our difficult "consensus reality." Some people have never met a scientific fact they can't deny on Scriptural evidence, others never heard a carnival barker that couldn't tempt them with even slipperier snake oil. Like Fox Mulder, we want to believe in conspiracies at the highest level and little green men on ice at Area 51. Or another kind of imaginary friend in the sky, for that matter. Or magic. Weight-loss pills. Or that what time and date you were born decides your future. Some even believe there was no collusion. It's like gullibility is in our genetic makeup or something. (I read that on the Internet, so it must be true.)

I have done my own share of magical thinking, considering ideas that, at best, entertained me or made me feel a bit better, and at worst, were a huge waste of time (looking at you, Y2K panic). Yet Andersen's history didn't ever make me feel stupid. He understands the difference between keeping an open, curious and well-informed mind, and letting it fall open so wide anything at all might colonize it. His humor is sharp but (almost) never condescending, and his range of knowledge vast. If you want to understand how we got here -- to this "un-Presidented" national crisis -- or even just appreciate an offbeat tour of weird American history, pick this one up.

5 thought-provoking and entertaining stars. ...more

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Apr 26, 2019 Anita Pomerantz rated it it was ok

If ever there was a book I should have DNF'd early on, this was it. Anderson's hypothesis, if you will, is that the United States was birthed in fantasy (the gold rush) and over time, our populace has become so enamored with fantasy that we ended up with Donald Trump as our president.

And his "proof" is anecdote after anecdote (described in a historical context) about the uniquely (ok, sure) American love of fantasy. Well, yeah, if you conflate every form of entertainment and pleasure seeking wit ...more

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Oct 19, 2017 Andy Klein rated it did not like it

Shelves: history, religion, philosophy, non-fiction

This work would have made a decent article in the New Yorker. But expanded into a long book, we are left with the author shoehorning every conceivable--and many inconceivable and some patently ludicrous--examples of fantasies to fill out a book and try to make his point. There are explanations about how we arrived at Donald Trump and why so many people were taken in by him, but Anderson doesn't have the intellectual firepower to unearth and explain them. A book will be written that explains how ...more

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Oct 16, 2017 Todd Martin rated it really liked it

Shelves: culture-politics

We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking.
- Mark Twain

You’re saying it’s a falsehood. And they’re giving … our press secretary gave alternative facts.
- Kellyanne Conway

In his 1963 book Anti-intellectualism in American Life Richard Hofstadter noted that, unique among the developed world, U.S. citizens were particularly impervious to factual information. A half century later, despite the prevalence of technology that places a world of information at our fingertips, conditions hav ...more

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Oct 04, 2017 Mal Warwick rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

You will be amazed. In Kurt Andersen's shocking 500-year survey of US history, Fantasyland, you'll learn just how truly exceptional America is—and not in a good way.

Who is responsible for "fake news?"

If you think only Donald Trump, Fox News, anonymous online pundits, and Russian hackers have a monopoly on "fake news," guess again. Andersen relates countless incidents of purportedly true accounts of satanic cults, multiple personality disorder, recovered memory, vaccines causing autism, and other You will be amazed. In Kurt Andersen's shocking 500-year survey of US history, Fantasyland, you'll learn just how truly exceptional America is—and not in a good way.

Who is responsible for "fake news?"

If you think only Donald Trump, Fox News, anonymous online pundits, and Russian hackers have a monopoly on "fake news," guess again. Andersen relates countless incidents of purportedly true accounts of satanic cults, multiple personality disorder, recovered memory, vaccines causing autism, and other once-pervasive delusions on ABC and NBC News and other mainstream media over the years. Even that paragon of accurate journalism, The New York Times, has fallen prey to such nonsense from time to time. Is it any wonder, then, that ludicrous conspiracy theories should multiply on the World Wide Web, where any nut can say anything anonymously without fear of contradiction?

Who spreads conspiracy theories?

Equating The New York Times with Breitbart and Russian hackers as purveyors of fake news would be highly misleading. Andersen doesn't do that. As he notes in another context, "There are different degrees of egregious." However, he is clear that "fake news" and conspiracy theories are by no means limited to the so-called "Trump voters" pilloried by professional journalists and commentators.

Huge numbers of other Americans have left the realm of rationalism for Fantasyland. Consider Scientology, the antivaccine movement, hysteria about GMO food, alien abductions, homeopathy, and the national missing-children panic of the early 1980s. None of these delusions and conspiracy theories are solely identified with any class, region, or race. And popular New Age gurus such as Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, and Eckhart Tolle, all of whom sometimes spout nonsense, have not attracted notably large followings among the creationist set. Similarly, Oprah, Dr. Oz, Bill Maher, and other popular show business celebrities have promoted delusional beliefs. As the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously noted, "You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts." Unfortunately, as Andersen makes abundantly clear, far too few Americans take that sentiment seriously—and, in that respect, the United States stands out clearly in comparison with all other developed nations.

The religious roots of America's infatuation with fantasy

Andersen's account begins early in the sixteenth century with the establishment of English colonies in present-day Virginia and Massachusetts. In both cases, conventional wisdom has it that the search for religious freedom drove early colonists to American shores. That's only partly true, and only in the case of New England. Andersen explains that the primary motivations for all the earliest European expeditions were visions of gold and the Northwest Passage. And the Puritans—they only later called themselves Pilgrims—who landed south of Boston were in no way motivated by religious "freedom." They had set out to establish a theocracy intolerant of any religious practices that departed even slightly from the rigid prescriptions of their faith.

However, in Protestantism, with its view that "every man [is] his own priest," there lurked a fatal flaw in its commitment to conformity: if "every man" was "his own priest," what was to stop them from inventing their own religions? In fact, as American history clearly shows, that is precisely what has happened over the five centuries since Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. Beginning not long after the landing at Plymouth Rock with Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, Americans have demonstrated unending creativity in devising variations, often radical variations, on Christianity, from Mormonism, Christian Science, Seventh Day Adventism, and the Jehovah's Witnesses to the numberless evangelical Protestant denominations.

In every case, these new belief systems rested on fantasy. And there, Andersen argues, lies the rub. Most Americans seem willing to suspend disbelief to worship on the basis of precepts any self-respecting science fiction writer would reject as improbable. (If you think I'm exaggerating, read The Book of Mormon as written by Joseph Smith, or Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by by Lawrence Wright.) Interestingly, Andersen cites studies by scholars at Yale and the University of Chicago that found "the single strongest driver of conspiracy belief [is] belief in end-time prophecies."

Andersen frequently cites findings from public opinion surveys to telling effect. "Nearly all American Christians believe that Heaven (85 percent) and Hell (70 percent) are actual places," he writes. Focusing on "the solid majority of Protestants, he adds that "at least a quarter of Americans . . . are sure 'the Bible is the actual word of God . . . to be taken literally, word for word.'" And "more than a third of all Americans . . . believe that God regularly grants them and their fellow charismatics magical powers—to speak in tongues, heal the sick, cast out demons, and so on." Elsewhere, Andersen notes, "According to Pew, 58 percent of evangelicals believe that Jesus will return no later than the year 2050. (And only 17 percent of all Americans said they thought He definitely wasn't coming back during the next thirty-three years.)" With such beliefs so widely held, fake news and "alternative facts" can be no surprise.

The problem is far broader than fanciful religious beliefs

Fantasyland is far from limited to the religious sources of Americans' predisposition to fantasy. Andersen regards shopping malls, planned communities, Civil War reenactment and Renaissance Faires, fantasy sports, theme restaurants, People magazine, cosmetic surgery, pro wrestling, computer games, reality TV, and Disney theme parks as other signposts of our infatuation with the unreal and the impossible. It's difficult to argue with this on a strictly logical basis. Andersen makes the case. Yet I find it a stretch too far to imply that such phenomena are in any way equivalent to fantasies such as widespread voter fraud, hysteria about vaccines, and the pernicious practices of Scientology, all of which have real-world consequences and sometimes lead to physical harm and even death. However, Andersen implies that, because of conditioning by these seemingly inconsequential realities, Americans are peculiarly susceptible to dangerous conspiracy theories. ...more

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Mar 20, 2018 Jennifer rated it liked it

Shelves: history, social-issues, library, us-history

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I think Kurt Andersen has important things to say about current events in the US, and the way our past has led to this moment. His thesis--that our current alternative-facts world is an understandable outcome for a country founded on the idea of escape and the possibility of illimitable riches and freedom--suggests both a way of understanding the modern era and a hope of a more reasoned, and reasonable, future.

On the other hand, any nonfict ...more

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Nov 02, 2018 Monica rated it really liked it

Shelves: pub_2010s, behavior-psychology, kindle_nonfiction, history, soc-sci-politics, audio

My impression of Fantasyland ended up being a lot like my impression of Hillbilly Elegy. Overall, I liked it. I even enjoyed it, but it was about 80% solid research/fact and 20% political rhetoric. That's a bit of a turn off for me, even when I agree with him (and I do). Andersen's basic premise is that from the very beginning America is built upon a foundation of self delusion and a profound lack of awareness and perspective regarding history. From the Pilgrims to the Populists and Progressi ...more

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Nov 01, 2017 Book rated it it was amazing

Shelves: politics-economics, history, social-science

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

“Fantasyland” is a provocative book that describes how being being free to believe anything in America has metastasized out of control. Bestselling author, contributor to Vanity Fair and The New York Times, and radio show host Kurt Andersen provides compelling arguments from many angles that America in essence has mutated into Fantasyland and has led to the presidency of Donald J. Trump. This stimulating book includes 46 c ...more

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Nov 11, 2017 Radiantflux rated it it was amazing

Shelves: human-nature-and-culture, usa, audiobook, sex-drugs-weirdness, trump

65th book for 2017.

Andersen's book, by taking an almost encyclopedic view of all that has been crazy in America since it's foundation, offers a very useful frame to understand contemporary events in the United States.

Although it could be described a breezy romp through 500 years of delusion, it's breadth is very useful in understanding how comprehensive the rot is, and its lightness of touch offers the necessary sugar-coating to swallow the bitter red pill he offers.

The book is refreshingly ha ...more

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Nov 16, 2017 Cat rated it it was ok

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About Kurt Andersen

Kurt Andersen

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Kurt Andersen is the author of the novels Turn of the Century, Heyday, and True Believers, and and, with Alec Baldwin of You Can't Spell America Without Me. His non-fiction books include Fantasyland, Reset and The Real Thing.

He is also host of the Peabody Award-winning weekly public radio program Studio 360,.

Previously, Kurt was a co-founder and editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Spy, edito ...more

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Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America

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“mix epic individualism with extreme religion; mix show business with everything else; let all that steep and simmer for a few centuries; run it through the anything-goes 1960s and the Internet age; the result is the America we inhabit today, where reality and fantasy are weirdly and dangerously blurred and commingled.” — 11 likes

“You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.” — 5 likes

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