From the acclaimed author of American Comics comes a sweeping and entertaining narrative that details the rise and enduring grip of horror in American literature, and, ultimately, culture—from the taut, terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe to the grisly, lingering films of Jordan Peele
America is held captive by horror stories. They flicker on the screen of a darkened movie theater and are shared around the campfire. They blare out in tabloid true-crime headlines, and in the worried voices of local news anchors. They are consumed, virally, on the phones in our pockets. Like the victims in any slasher movie worth its salt, we can’t escape the thrall of scary stories.
In American Scary, noted cultural historian and Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes the reader to the startling origins of horror in the United States. Dauber draws a captivating through line that ties historical influences ranging from the Salem witch trials and enslaved-person narratives directly to the body of work we more closely associate with horror today: the weird tales of H. P. Lovecraft, the lingering fiction of Shirley Jackson, the disquieting films of Alfred Hitchcock, the up-all-night stories of Stephen King, and the gripping critiques of Jordan Peele.
With the dexterous weave of insight and style that have made him one of America’s leading historians of popular culture, Dauber makes the haunting case that horror reveals the true depths of the American mind.
“America likes its scary stories. But why? That’s the simple but fascinating question in this expansive survey of the history of horror in American popular culture.”
― Goodreads, "Readers' Most Anticipated Books of Fall"
Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Season!
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― Goodreads And The Washington Post
"America is the world's biggest haunted house and American Scary is the only travel guide you need. I loved this book.”
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― Grady Hendrix, author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group
"American Scary—a rigorous history of American horrors, real and fictional—is clear-eyed, unflinching, comprehensive in scope and detail, and entertaining as hell. A remarkable achievement."​
― Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World
FEATURING CAMEOS FROM…
Shirley Jackson •â€¯The Sixth Sense •  Edgar Allan Poe • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Ann Radcliffe • Charles Brockden Brown •â€¯Los Espookys • Washington Irving • Nat Turner •  Night of the Living Dead • H. P. Lovecraft •â€¯Alien • Mary Heaton Vorse • Edith Wharton • Norman Bates • Lon Chaney • Frankenstein • Dracula • H. G. Wells • William Faulkner • Dashiell Hammett • Tananarive Due •â€¯The Twilight Zone •â€¯The Handmaid’s Tale • Ray Bradbury •â€¯I Am Legend • Elia Kazan •â€¯Psycho • Ralph Ellison •â€¯The Blair Witch Project • Stanley Kubrick •â€¯Helter Skelter • Jordan Peele •â€¯The Walking Dead • H. H. Holmes • Harriet Beecher Stowe