First published 2025
Cultural critic Peter Biskind examines why supernatural creatures now dominate our screens and box offices. He traces how zombies, vampires, witches, and apocalyptic scenarios transformed from niche entertainment into billion-dollar franchises. Biskind argues these aren't mindless diversions but ideological battlegrounds where political forces clash. He shows how the bipartisan consensus that held American society together after World War II crumbled under pressure from civil rights movements, Vietnam, Watergate, the Reagan era, 9/11, and the Tea Party. Each political shock pushed the culture further toward extremes. Where compromise once ruled, polarization now reigns. Biskind uses examples from The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Avatar, and World War Z to demonstrate how entertainment reflects our fractured politics. The book reveals how formerly fringe genres became mainstream precisely because they mirror our divided moment, when extremism shifted from vice to virtue.
Genres: political-science, non-fiction, 21st-century, academic, cultural-studies, american-history
Vibes: analytical, insightful, thought-provoking
Tropes: ideological-conflict, social-commentary
Period: 21st-Century
320 pages · Hardcover · Metropolitan Books