The first half of the 20th century was a golden age of American storytelling. Mailboxes burgeoned with pulp magazines, conveying an endless variety of fiction. Comic strips were a staple of the papers, eagerly followed by millions of readers. Families gathered around the radio, anxious to hear the exploits of their favorite heroes and villains. Before the emergence of television as a dominant cultural force, storytelling blossomed in America as audiences...

A prescient book that forecast the culture that gave rise to Trump — a society beholden to empty spectacle and obsession with image at the expense of reality, reason, and truth.
An instant bestseller, Empire of Illusion is a striking and unsettling exploration of illusion and fantasy in contemporary American culture. Traveling to the ringside of professional wrestling bouts at Madison Square Garden, to Las Vegas to write about...

"Fanfic, cosplay, cons, books, memes, podcasts, vlogs, OTPs and RPGs and MMOs and more - it's never been a better time to be a girl geek. The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy is the ultimate handbook for ladies living the nerdy life, a fun and feminist take on the often male-dominated world of geekdom. With delightful illustrations and an unabashed love for all the in(ternet)s and outs of geek culture, this book is packed with tips, playthroughs, and...

Our democracy today is fraught with political campaigns, lobbyists, liberal media, and Fox News commentators, all using language to influence the way we think and reason about public issues. Even so, many of us believe that propaganda and manipulation aren't problems for us--not in the way they were for the totalitarian societies of the mid-twentieth century. In How Propaganda Works, Jason Stanley demonstrates that more attention needs to be paid....

This volume argues that new technology (the Internet in particular) is making it possible for people to collaborate in ways that have the potential to change society. The book opens in bleak, dangerous, overcrowded 1720s London, then moves to the present digital age, showing how advancements in technology and connectivity have spurred a torrent of collaborative creativity -- from carpools and campus wide study groups to Wikipedia and Linux -- whose...

When Superman first landed on Earth in 1938, he wasn't the muscled megahero we know today. An inveterate champion of the downtrodden and oppressed, his personality reflected the imaginations of his two teenage creators and the Depression era in which they lived. With his superhuman strengths and very human heart, Superman was a champion America could believe in. Superman: The Golden Age describes the Man of Steel's life and times from 1938 to 1955....