Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting

Monsters arrived in 2011âand now they are back. Not only do they continue to live in our midst but as historian Scott Poole shows these monsters are an important part of our pastâa hideous obsession America cannot seem to escape. Pooles central argument in Monsters in America is that monster tales intertwine with Americas troubled history of racism politics class struggle and gender inequality. The second edition of Monsters leads readers deeper into Americas tangled past to show how monsters continue to haunt contemporary American ideology. By adding new discussions of the American West Poole focuses intently on the Native American experience. He reveals how monster stories went west to Sand Creek and Wounded Knee bringing the preoccupation with monsters into the twentieth century through the American Indian Movement. In his new preface and expanded conclusion Pooles tale connects to the presentâillustrating the relationship between current social movements and their historical antecedents. This proven textbook also studies the social location of contemporary horror films exploring for example how Get Out emerged from the context of the Black Lives Matter movement. Finally in the new section American Carnage Poole challenges readers to assess what their own monster tales might be and how our sordid past horrors express themselves in our present cultural anxieties. By the end of the book Poole cautions that Americas monsters arent going away anytime soon. If specters of the past still haunt our present they may yet invade our future. Monsters are here to stay.