Fantasyland

July 1, 2017
When did Americans come to shun reality? When did the American experiment become a congeries of solipsisms?"As I pass by fish in barrels," writes Studio 360 host Andersen (True Believers, 2012, etc.) at the outset of this entertaining tour of American irreality, "I will often shoot them." Indeed he does, but then, as writers as various as H.L. Mencken and Christopher Hitchens long ago discovered, American society offers endless targets. Andersen finds a climacteric in Karl Rove's pronouncement, a dozen years ago, that those people who live in "the reality-based community" need to understand that "that's not the way the world really works anymore." True enough: Andersen closes with the rise of Trump-ism and its "critical mass of fantasy and lies" that is in danger of becoming "something much worse than nasty, oafish, reality-show pseudoconservatism." It's not just the Trumpies who are ruining things for everyone; by the author's account, the nice liberals who refuse to vaccinate their children are as much a part of the problem as those who flock to creation museums and megachurches. All are waystations of Andersen's "Fantasyland," an assemblage not just of scattered false beliefs, but whole lifestyles cobbled from them, which lands us in the 1960s and its ethos: "Do your own thing, find your own reality, it's all relative." It's not, but that's where we are today, at least by Andersen's account, though he hastens to add that approving nods to political correctness are not necessarily the same thing as endorsing perniciousness. Throughout, the author names names--Dr. Oz, for one, won't be happy, and neither will Oprah--and takes no prisoners, offering incitement for the rest of us to do the same. "We need to become less squishy," Andersen writes, and instead gird up for some reality-based arguments against the "dangerously untrue and unreal." A spirited, often entertaining rant against things as they are.

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September 1, 2017

Andersen (True Believers) interprets American history, beginning with the Puritans, in part as a myth-driven, religiously fundamental mental, antiscientific engine that ultimately paved the way for the presidency of Donald Trump. According to the author, the 18th century's "First Great Delirium" ushered in utopian fantasies, religious and supernatural cults, and spurious medical treatments, which resurfaced with a vengeance with the 1960s counterculture and continues unabated. In the 21st century, the Internet fuels the "fantasy-industrial complex," which has made entertainment the force behind pop culture, the media, and politics. Trump's appeal, claims Andersen, is his skill at invoking American myths of greatness and opportunity, historically limited to mostly wealthy, white males. He asserts that the president has become the leader of the United States of Fantasyland, with his reality TV and Art of the Deal credentials. Andersen's spirited, thought-provoking narrative provides a compelling view of the current polarized state of U.S. politics, although the author holds out some hope that Fantasyland has peaked with the Trump administration. VERDICT This engaging work will find a wide and appreciative audience among general readers and scholars alike. [See the author Q&A on p. 130.--Ed.]--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017
We have elected a President who regularly spews out alternate facts and conspiracy theories. According to writer and popular broadcaster Andersen (True Believers, 2012), this isn't an aberration but a logical culmination of an evolving trend in our national DNA. America was founded on the freedom of the individual, a laudable concept with a dark side: everyone has license to believe and propagate a personal version of reality. That, combined with the dramatic acceleration of information-sharing over the Internet, has given rise to a segment of our society that is living in a fantasy land in which verifiable facts are forbidden. To support this assertion, Andersen takes readers on a long, chronological tour, beginning with the religious certainty and intolerance of sixteenth-century Protestants. He then proceeds to savage colonial witch scares, Mormonism, fake medicinal cures, and a wide variety of contemporary political delusions. Andersen paints with a broad brush, and his efforts to connect dots seem flawed at times. Still, this disturbing examination of how fringe and crackpot ideas enter the mainstream makes worthy, provocative reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)