{"product_id":"9780812978902","title":"Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e 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\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow did we get here?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen shows that what’s happening in our country today—this post-factual, “fake news” moment we’re all living through—is not something new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character. America was founded by wishful dreamers, magical thinkers, and true believers, by hucksters and their suckers. Fantasy is deeply embedded in our DNA.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver the course of five centuries—from the Salem witch trials to Scientology to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, from P. T. Barnum to Hollywood and the anything-goes, wild-and-crazy sixties, from conspiracy theories to our fetish for guns and obsession with extraterrestrials—our love of the fantastic\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003ehas made America exceptional in a way that we've never fully acknowledged. From the start, our ultra-individualism was attached to epic dreams and epic fantasies—every citizen was free to believe absolutely anything, or to pretend to be absolutely anybody. With the gleeful erudition and tell-it-like-it-is ferocity of a Christopher Hitchens, Andersen explores whether the great American experiment in liberty has gone off the rails.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFantasyland\u003c\/i\u003e could not appear at a more perfect moment. If you want to understand Donald Trump and the culture of twenty-first-century America, if you want to know how the lines between reality and illusion have become dangerously blurred, you must read this book.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eFantasyland\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With this rousing book, [Kurt] Andersen proves to be the kind of clear-eyed critic an anxious country needs in the midst of a national crisis.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“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.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This is an important book—the indispensable book—for understanding America in the age of Trump. It’s an eye-opening history filled with brilliant insights, a saga of how we were always susceptible to fantasy, from the Puritan fanatics to the talk-radio and Internet wackos who mix show business, hucksterism, and conspiracy theories.”\u003cb\u003e—Walter Isaacson, #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eLeonardo da Vinci\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47016595423472,"sku":"9780812978902","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780812978902_p0.jpg?v=1763743875","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780812978902","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}