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American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite History & Biography (2024)From the acclaimed author of American Comics and Jewish Comedy comes a sweeping and entertaining narrative that details the rise and enduring grip of horror in American literature, cinema, 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 each of our pockets. Like the victims in any slasher 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 the horror genre in the United States, drawing a surprising through-line between the lingering influence of the European Gothic, the enslaved insurrection tales propagated by slaveholders, and the apocryphal chronicles of colonial settlers kidnapped by Native Americans, among many others.
These foundational narratives give rise to and are influenced by the body of work we more closely associate with the weird fiction of HP Lovecraft, the lingering stories of Shirley Jackson, the unsettling films of Alfred Hitchcock, the up-all-night tales of Stephen King, and the gripping critiques of Jordan Peele. From “The Tell-Tale Heart” to M3gan, we begin to see why the horror genre is the perfect prism through which to view America’s past and present.
With the extraordinary historical breadth and dexterous weave of insight and style that has made him twice a finalist for the National Jewish Book, Dauber makes the haunting case that horror reveals the true depths of the American mind.
Featuring cameos
Shirley Jackson • The Sixth Sense • Edgar Allan Poe • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Anne Radcliffe • Charles Brockden Brown • Los Espookys • Washington Irving • Nat Turner • Night of the Living Dead • H.P. Lovecraft • Alien • Mary Heaton Vorse • Edith Wharton • Norman Bates • Lon Chaney • Frankenstein • Dracula • H.G. Wells • William Faulkner • Dashiell Hammett • Tananarive Due • Twilight Zone • The Handmaid’s Tale • Ray Bradbury • I Am Legend • Elia Kazan • Psycho • Ralph Ellison • The Blair Witch Project • Stanley Kubrick • Helter Skelter • Jordan Peele • The Walking Dead • H.H. Holmes • Harriet Beecher Stowe
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 each of our pockets. Like the victims in any slasher 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 the horror genre in the United States, drawing a surprising through-line between the lingering influence of the European Gothic, the enslaved insurrection tales propagated by slaveholders, and the apocryphal chronicles of colonial settlers kidnapped by Native Americans, among many others.
These foundational narratives give rise to and are influenced by the body of work we more closely associate with the weird fiction of HP Lovecraft, the lingering stories of Shirley Jackson, the unsettling films of Alfred Hitchcock, the up-all-night tales of Stephen King, and the gripping critiques of Jordan Peele. From “The Tell-Tale Heart” to M3gan, we begin to see why the horror genre is the perfect prism through which to view America’s past and present.
With the extraordinary historical breadth and dexterous weave of insight and style that has made him twice a finalist for the National Jewish Book, Dauber makes the haunting case that horror reveals the true depths of the American mind.
Featuring cameos
Shirley Jackson • The Sixth Sense • Edgar Allan Poe • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Anne Radcliffe • Charles Brockden Brown • Los Espookys • Washington Irving • Nat Turner • Night of the Living Dead • H.P. Lovecraft • Alien • Mary Heaton Vorse • Edith Wharton • Norman Bates • Lon Chaney • Frankenstein • Dracula • H.G. Wells • William Faulkner • Dashiell Hammett • Tananarive Due • Twilight Zone • The Handmaid’s Tale • Ray Bradbury • I Am Legend • Elia Kazan • Psycho • Ralph Ellison • The Blair Witch Project • Stanley Kubrick • Helter Skelter • Jordan Peele • The Walking Dead • H.H. Holmes • Harriet Beecher Stowe
480 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2024
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October 26, 2024
“Almost every creator of horror – almost every horror fan – has been asked this question…Why is it that you’re interested in this stuff in the first place? Isn’t the world scary enough, out there? Why do you need to be scared more? And the answer, the answer that we all have, I suspect, is: of course. Of course it’s scary out there. It’s too scary. Much scarier than fiction, in fact. And so…you take the scary stuff and you put it into a form that you can control; and you aestheticize and count out its beats and rhythms and you scream and you close the book or leave the theater or turn off the television and your heart returns to its normal rhythm and you feel a little better. For a while…”
- Jeremy Dauber, American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond
Every spooky season, I try to find the right horror novel to properly channel the generalized anxieties of my daily life. Typically, I struggle, because I don’t really know what I’m looking for, especially since it’s a genre I only really visit one time a year. Jeremy Dauber’s American Scary seemed an elegant solution. Instead of picking one or two titles, I’d enjoy a survey of a huge swath of terror, encompassing not only novels, but poetry, film, and television.
Unfortunately, even though American Scary is intermittently entertaining – and full of great recommendations – it doesn’t work nearly as well as it should. It tries to cover way too much, way too fast, and ends up being far more exhausting than enlightening, and scary only to the extent of its sentence structure.
***
The premise of American Scary is that we use fictional horror as a catharsis for the very real fears that permeate our everyday existence. This is not exactly groundbreaking stuff. Dauber, though, explores the therapeutic nature of horror through the prism of American history, using events such as slavery, westward expansion, and war as his framework. He discusses how fiction reflected those violent experiences, while also commenting upon it for contemporary readers or viewers.
As ideas go, it’s not a bad one. The issue is in how it is presented: dizzily, with no apparent method.
***
It’s hard to fault Dauber’s ambition. The subtitle promises a journey stretching “from Salem to Stephen King,” and this is accurate. He begins with the Puritans, who used captivity narratives to reconcile their fear of Indian warfare with God’s supposed grace, and ends in the present day, with horror working overtime to keep up with the disasters that seem to unfold on a daily basis. In between, there’s over three-hundred years of bad happenings to digest and interpret, which is an awful lot of material for a book just over four-hundred pages long.
Instead of winnowing the mass down to the best examples fitting his thesis, Dauber seemingly tries to namecheck everything. The pace is breathless, as he jumps from one thing to the next. Sometimes, it felt like he was simply listing titles, a weird flex to let us know how much he has consumed. Every once in a while, he will slow down, and actually focus on one thing for a couple of paragraphs. This is when American Scary works best. For the most part, though, Dauber just races along. As a consequence, if you don’t happen to already know the specific bit of media that he is examining – the plot of the movie or book or play – then it’s hard to derive much meaning out of what Dauber is saying about it.
***
Even when Dauber makes his points perfectly clear, they are not exactly mind-expanding. He is a professor at Columbia University, and apparently drew from his own popular class when writing American Scary. This checks out, because it often feels like a lecture, one given in near stream-of-conscience by a smart, voluble individual. However, it can also feel like Dauber is talking down, as he might to a bunch of eighteen-year-olds.
In particular, Dauber acts as though no one reading his book knows anything at all about the dark side of American history. As a result, he keeps reminding us of this darkness over, and over, and over again, in ways that are intrusive and somewhat condescending. For example, he spends an entire page on the Declaration of Independence, as though its hypocrisies have remained hidden until now. Lumping this document into the category of “horror” is certainly provocative, but he makes no effort to backfill this attention-getter with anything resembling insight.
Breadth and depth are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but it’s hard to have both. Here, there’s breadth all right. It’s the depth – the details, the concentration, the forming of full thought-arcs – that is missing. To be sure, there is pleasure to be had in the summaries and generalities, but it gave me no lasting impression.
***
Dauber’s writing style also drove me to distraction. There are precious few simple, elegant statements in American Scary. Rather, Dauber lards his sentences with commas, elongates them with semicolons, sets them off with dashes, and garnishes the whole with modifiers. I have never seen so many colons before in my life. It made me feel like a gastroenterologist.
This cluttery execution clashes badly with the speed with which Dauber moves; he wants you to sprint along with him, while simultaneously tripping you with knotted prose that often requires a second read-through.
***
Expectations are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they inspired me to snap this up in hardcover, paying close to the cover price. On the other, it made for a longer fall when I realized – by the second or third page – that they were not going to be fulfilled. I don’t want to sound too harsh, since this is an inoffensive volume, but American Scary felt rather shallow, a mere scratching of the surface. There’s nothing here that wasn’t done better in – for instance – Eli Roth’s History of Horror, which really explored how issues of race and sexuality have played out in frightening films. Horror has a lot to say about our world. Regrettably, Dauber does not say a lot about horror that isn’t readily apparent.
- Jeremy Dauber, American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond
Every spooky season, I try to find the right horror novel to properly channel the generalized anxieties of my daily life. Typically, I struggle, because I don’t really know what I’m looking for, especially since it’s a genre I only really visit one time a year. Jeremy Dauber’s American Scary seemed an elegant solution. Instead of picking one or two titles, I’d enjoy a survey of a huge swath of terror, encompassing not only novels, but poetry, film, and television.
Unfortunately, even though American Scary is intermittently entertaining – and full of great recommendations – it doesn’t work nearly as well as it should. It tries to cover way too much, way too fast, and ends up being far more exhausting than enlightening, and scary only to the extent of its sentence structure.
***
The premise of American Scary is that we use fictional horror as a catharsis for the very real fears that permeate our everyday existence. This is not exactly groundbreaking stuff. Dauber, though, explores the therapeutic nature of horror through the prism of American history, using events such as slavery, westward expansion, and war as his framework. He discusses how fiction reflected those violent experiences, while also commenting upon it for contemporary readers or viewers.
As ideas go, it’s not a bad one. The issue is in how it is presented: dizzily, with no apparent method.
***
It’s hard to fault Dauber’s ambition. The subtitle promises a journey stretching “from Salem to Stephen King,” and this is accurate. He begins with the Puritans, who used captivity narratives to reconcile their fear of Indian warfare with God’s supposed grace, and ends in the present day, with horror working overtime to keep up with the disasters that seem to unfold on a daily basis. In between, there’s over three-hundred years of bad happenings to digest and interpret, which is an awful lot of material for a book just over four-hundred pages long.
Instead of winnowing the mass down to the best examples fitting his thesis, Dauber seemingly tries to namecheck everything. The pace is breathless, as he jumps from one thing to the next. Sometimes, it felt like he was simply listing titles, a weird flex to let us know how much he has consumed. Every once in a while, he will slow down, and actually focus on one thing for a couple of paragraphs. This is when American Scary works best. For the most part, though, Dauber just races along. As a consequence, if you don’t happen to already know the specific bit of media that he is examining – the plot of the movie or book or play – then it’s hard to derive much meaning out of what Dauber is saying about it.
***
Even when Dauber makes his points perfectly clear, they are not exactly mind-expanding. He is a professor at Columbia University, and apparently drew from his own popular class when writing American Scary. This checks out, because it often feels like a lecture, one given in near stream-of-conscience by a smart, voluble individual. However, it can also feel like Dauber is talking down, as he might to a bunch of eighteen-year-olds.
In particular, Dauber acts as though no one reading his book knows anything at all about the dark side of American history. As a result, he keeps reminding us of this darkness over, and over, and over again, in ways that are intrusive and somewhat condescending. For example, he spends an entire page on the Declaration of Independence, as though its hypocrisies have remained hidden until now. Lumping this document into the category of “horror” is certainly provocative, but he makes no effort to backfill this attention-getter with anything resembling insight.
Breadth and depth are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but it’s hard to have both. Here, there’s breadth all right. It’s the depth – the details, the concentration, the forming of full thought-arcs – that is missing. To be sure, there is pleasure to be had in the summaries and generalities, but it gave me no lasting impression.
***
Dauber’s writing style also drove me to distraction. There are precious few simple, elegant statements in American Scary. Rather, Dauber lards his sentences with commas, elongates them with semicolons, sets them off with dashes, and garnishes the whole with modifiers. I have never seen so many colons before in my life. It made me feel like a gastroenterologist.
This cluttery execution clashes badly with the speed with which Dauber moves; he wants you to sprint along with him, while simultaneously tripping you with knotted prose that often requires a second read-through.
***
Expectations are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they inspired me to snap this up in hardcover, paying close to the cover price. On the other, it made for a longer fall when I realized – by the second or third page – that they were not going to be fulfilled. I don’t want to sound too harsh, since this is an inoffensive volume, but American Scary felt rather shallow, a mere scratching of the surface. There’s nothing here that wasn’t done better in – for instance – Eli Roth’s History of Horror, which really explored how issues of race and sexuality have played out in frightening films. Horror has a lot to say about our world. Regrettably, Dauber does not say a lot about horror that isn’t readily apparent.
June 9, 2024
ARC for review. To be published October 1, 2024 (just in time to be your Halloween read!)
Exhaustive, occasionally exhausting, but, ultimately, a winner this book looks at the history of horror (in media/entertainment, not in, like a psychological sense, exactly, but, well, I don’t know, a little?) in the United States from colonial times to the present. So that is a lot to cover. A LOT.
I learned some small bits of history that I didn’t know, including a story about the execution of a slave that is never, ever going to leave my mind. And the state of Florida (and other states) think we need LESS of that history. No, my friends, the only way to be sure that these things don’t happen again is to make sure we TEACH things like this. A digression, but I grew up in the South, attended public schools, went to a good college, have a law degree from a top twenty school. Know when I learned about the Tulsa Massacre? WHEN I WENT TO TULSA. In my forties. But I would have read about it here, so there’s that.
I won’t lie, early on this was a bit of a slog for me; I felt like I was reading a textbook and it felt like more history than discussion of horror. I kept rewarding myself every time I would get through another ten pages. Ten pages. But things really picked up once we reached the 20th century.
The book seems incredibly thorough to me, covering literature, film, TV, radio and computer games (although gamers might disagree.) Some might quibble and say, “Well, what about H. Lutegrass Hobble and his seminal 1914 tale “They Came in Through the Outhouse Slats?”” but I’m not a scholar like that. I couldn’t think of one thing I thought would be included that wasn’t.
The author notes that, overall, Americans, like people all over the world, are afraid of the unknown, but that Americans are also fearful of people who are different from them, the “other,” and they are particularly afraid when they see that class of “others” undergoing a change. So, men were always afraid of women, but when women started to gain more autonomy that fear became heightened. The public was always fearful of Black people but when the slaves were emancipated and when civil rights legislation took hold those fears were enhanced, and in and on, forever and ever, world without end.
If you love horror, really really love it, and this sounds interesting to you, you probably won’t be sorry you read it. It’s not for everyone, but it’s really well done.
Exhaustive, occasionally exhausting, but, ultimately, a winner this book looks at the history of horror (in media/entertainment, not in, like a psychological sense, exactly, but, well, I don’t know, a little?) in the United States from colonial times to the present. So that is a lot to cover. A LOT.
I learned some small bits of history that I didn’t know, including a story about the execution of a slave that is never, ever going to leave my mind. And the state of Florida (and other states) think we need LESS of that history. No, my friends, the only way to be sure that these things don’t happen again is to make sure we TEACH things like this. A digression, but I grew up in the South, attended public schools, went to a good college, have a law degree from a top twenty school. Know when I learned about the Tulsa Massacre? WHEN I WENT TO TULSA. In my forties. But I would have read about it here, so there’s that.
I won’t lie, early on this was a bit of a slog for me; I felt like I was reading a textbook and it felt like more history than discussion of horror. I kept rewarding myself every time I would get through another ten pages. Ten pages. But things really picked up once we reached the 20th century.
The book seems incredibly thorough to me, covering literature, film, TV, radio and computer games (although gamers might disagree.) Some might quibble and say, “Well, what about H. Lutegrass Hobble and his seminal 1914 tale “They Came in Through the Outhouse Slats?”” but I’m not a scholar like that. I couldn’t think of one thing I thought would be included that wasn’t.
The author notes that, overall, Americans, like people all over the world, are afraid of the unknown, but that Americans are also fearful of people who are different from them, the “other,” and they are particularly afraid when they see that class of “others” undergoing a change. So, men were always afraid of women, but when women started to gain more autonomy that fear became heightened. The public was always fearful of Black people but when the slaves were emancipated and when civil rights legislation took hold those fears were enhanced, and in and on, forever and ever, world without end.
If you love horror, really really love it, and this sounds interesting to you, you probably won’t be sorry you read it. It’s not for everyone, but it’s really well done.
August 24, 2024
AMERICAN SCARY
BY JEREMY DAUBER
An exhaustive history of horror by talented Jeremy Dauber that answers the question, “What scares the crap out of us”.
This book explores historical perspectives that touch an array of media from Hollywood to literature, Lovecraft to Hitchcock, and so much more.
I really enjoyed learning so much about this subject as a consumer of scary in media and books.
Fantastic
BY JEREMY DAUBER
An exhaustive history of horror by talented Jeremy Dauber that answers the question, “What scares the crap out of us”.
This book explores historical perspectives that touch an array of media from Hollywood to literature, Lovecraft to Hitchcock, and so much more.
I really enjoyed learning so much about this subject as a consumer of scary in media and books.
Fantastic
July 22, 2024
Jeremy Dauber does to the horror genre with American Scary what he did to the comic book world with American Comics. The author exhaustingly researched the genre and gives us a definitive history of what scares Americans.
American Scary takes us to the startling origins of the horror genre in the United States, drawing a surprising through-line between the lingering influence of the European Gothic, the enslaved insurrection tales propagated by slaveholders, and the apocryphal chronicles of colonial settlers kidnapped by Native Americans, among many others.
These foundational narratives give rise to and are influenced by the body of work we more closely associate with horror: the weird fiction of HP Lovecraft, the lingering stories of Shirley Jackson, the unsettling films of Alfred Hitchcock, the up-all-night tales of Stephen King, and the gripping critiques of Jordan Peele.
From The Tell-Tale Heart to M3gan, we begin to see why the horror genre is the perfect prism through which to view America’s past and present. With the extraordinary historical breadth and dexterous weave of insight and style that has made him twice a finalist for the National Jewish Book, Dauber makes the haunting case that horror reveals the true depths of the American mind.
Jeremy Dauber is known for not leaving any stone unturned with researching and writing his books. Through his meticulous research and storytelling, Dauber gives us a book that teaches and engages us in the rich tapestry of American horror from books, movies, television plus even radio and computer games. We fell in love with his ability to shed light on the history the world of comics and now he tells all about the history of the horror genre.
As we read American Scary we learned so much about the horror genre and how key names have left their mark on horror. Dauber expertly connects the dots between influential creators and their contributions to American horror as well how historical moments have influenced what scares us as Americans. By examining the works of these famous names in horror, Dauber reveals how horror serves as a mirror reflecting society's deepest fears and anxieties.
I am only recently, over the past five years or so, been a huge fan of the horror genre. Boiling down American Scary is exactly how I feel about horror. Americans are afraid of the unknown and stuff that is different than us as Americans. This fear is what the horror genre is built on and Dauber successfully gives us a history of this with his latest outstanding book.
Known for his insightful commentary on cultural history and literature, Dauber brings his expertise to bear in American Scary which even the most seasoned horror fan with get something from this book. Dauber has a knack for engaging narrative storytelling with meticulous research, and insightful analysis, giving us a comprehensive look at how fear has permeated every aspect of American culture. American Scary is for those who grew up celebrating the horror and those new to genre.
American Scary takes us to the startling origins of the horror genre in the United States, drawing a surprising through-line between the lingering influence of the European Gothic, the enslaved insurrection tales propagated by slaveholders, and the apocryphal chronicles of colonial settlers kidnapped by Native Americans, among many others.
These foundational narratives give rise to and are influenced by the body of work we more closely associate with horror: the weird fiction of HP Lovecraft, the lingering stories of Shirley Jackson, the unsettling films of Alfred Hitchcock, the up-all-night tales of Stephen King, and the gripping critiques of Jordan Peele.
From The Tell-Tale Heart to M3gan, we begin to see why the horror genre is the perfect prism through which to view America’s past and present. With the extraordinary historical breadth and dexterous weave of insight and style that has made him twice a finalist for the National Jewish Book, Dauber makes the haunting case that horror reveals the true depths of the American mind.
Jeremy Dauber is known for not leaving any stone unturned with researching and writing his books. Through his meticulous research and storytelling, Dauber gives us a book that teaches and engages us in the rich tapestry of American horror from books, movies, television plus even radio and computer games. We fell in love with his ability to shed light on the history the world of comics and now he tells all about the history of the horror genre.
As we read American Scary we learned so much about the horror genre and how key names have left their mark on horror. Dauber expertly connects the dots between influential creators and their contributions to American horror as well how historical moments have influenced what scares us as Americans. By examining the works of these famous names in horror, Dauber reveals how horror serves as a mirror reflecting society's deepest fears and anxieties.
I am only recently, over the past five years or so, been a huge fan of the horror genre. Boiling down American Scary is exactly how I feel about horror. Americans are afraid of the unknown and stuff that is different than us as Americans. This fear is what the horror genre is built on and Dauber successfully gives us a history of this with his latest outstanding book.
Known for his insightful commentary on cultural history and literature, Dauber brings his expertise to bear in American Scary which even the most seasoned horror fan with get something from this book. Dauber has a knack for engaging narrative storytelling with meticulous research, and insightful analysis, giving us a comprehensive look at how fear has permeated every aspect of American culture. American Scary is for those who grew up celebrating the horror and those new to genre.
October 23, 2024
Thank you to Novel Suspects, Algonquin Books, and Hachette Audio for the copies to review.
I loved reading this via audio, as this could drag a little at times, or be a bit thorough is maybe a better way to put it, but overall it was a look into why we can’t get enough of horror stories and being scared. It covers a wide range of history from basically the origin of the horror genre in the US, and brings us to current day, covering Hitchcock, Stephen King, Jordan Peele, and so many others I’ve left out. It is definitely a must read for horror fans but this is also an important read, as Dauber ties the origins of horror to the colonial days and slavery, aka real life horrors, and continues through various eras throughout history. He makes the point that Americans are afraid of the unknown and things that are different than them, and when these things change then fear is heightened, causing actions such as the Salem witch trials. I could go on but this was a fascinating, thorough, and well done book on the root of horror, how it relates to real world events that occurred through time, and how many have capitalized on it through books, movies, and TV.
I loved reading this via audio, as this could drag a little at times, or be a bit thorough is maybe a better way to put it, but overall it was a look into why we can’t get enough of horror stories and being scared. It covers a wide range of history from basically the origin of the horror genre in the US, and brings us to current day, covering Hitchcock, Stephen King, Jordan Peele, and so many others I’ve left out. It is definitely a must read for horror fans but this is also an important read, as Dauber ties the origins of horror to the colonial days and slavery, aka real life horrors, and continues through various eras throughout history. He makes the point that Americans are afraid of the unknown and things that are different than them, and when these things change then fear is heightened, causing actions such as the Salem witch trials. I could go on but this was a fascinating, thorough, and well done book on the root of horror, how it relates to real world events that occurred through time, and how many have capitalized on it through books, movies, and TV.
November 4, 2024
In American Scary, Jeremy Dauber, a Columbia University professor and cultural historian, presents a fascinating journey through the dark corridors of American horror, from colonial fears to contemporary anxieties. Following his acclaimed works on American Comics and Jewish Comedy, Dauber brings his characteristic blend of scholarly insight and engaging narrative style to illuminate how horror has been both a mirror and a lens for American society.
The Haunted Foundations of American Horror
Dauber begins his exploration in colonial America, where he skillfully demonstrates how the earliest American horror stories emerged from very real terrors: the fear of divine punishment among Puritans, the dread of Native American attacks among settlers, and the horrific realities of slavery. His analysis of Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative and Cotton Mather's writings on witchcraft reveals how these early texts established patterns that would echo through centuries of American horror.
One of the book's greatest strengths is Dauber's ability to draw connections between seemingly disparate elements. He shows how the Salem witch trials, for instance, weren't just about supernatural fear but about societal control and the horror of false accusation – themes that would resurface in everything from The Crucible to modern political horror.
Literary Evolution and Social Commentary
The author's examination of the Gothic tradition's transformation on American soil is particularly insightful. Through careful analysis of works by Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dauber shows how American writers adapted European Gothic conventions to address uniquely American anxieties about identity, morality, and progress.
Strengths
Deep historical context and cultural analysis
Engaging writing style that balances academic insight with accessibility
Comprehensive coverage of both well-known and overlooked contributors to the genre
Thoughtful connections between historical events and their horror manifestations
Strong examination of how horror reflects societal fears across different eras
Areas for Improvement
Occasionally becomes too academic in tone, potentially alienating casual readers
Could have dedicated more space to international influences on American horror
Some contemporary horror creators receive relatively brief treatment
The final chapter feels somewhat rushed compared to earlier sections
Could have included more visual elements to support the text
The Modern Monster
Dauber's analysis truly shines when he reaches the 20th century, expertly dissecting how atomic age anxieties, civil rights struggles, and technological fears birthed new forms of horror. His examination of how Night of the Living Dead revolutionized both horror cinema and social commentary is particularly compelling.
Innovation in Structure
The book's organization deserves special praise. Rather than following a strictly chronological approach, Dauber weaves thematic threads that connect different eras, showing how similar fears manifest in different ways across time. This approach helps readers understand how horror evolves while fundamental anxieties remain constant.
Contemporary Relevance
The final sections of American Scary bring us to the present, with intelligent analysis of how filmmakers like Jordan Peele use horror to address contemporary social issues. Dauber convincingly argues that horror remains our most effective genre for processing societal trauma and confronting uncomfortable truths.
Critical Analysis
While American Scary is overwhelmingly successful in its ambitious scope, there are moments where Dauber's academic background leads to passages that might be too dense for casual readers. Additionally, some readers might wish for more extensive coverage of certain contemporary horror creators.
Final Verdict
American Scary is a masterful examination of horror's role in American culture. Dauber has created an essential text for understanding how our fears shape our stories and how those stories, in turn, shape us. While occasionally academic in tone, the book's insights and connections make it invaluable for anyone interested in horror or American cultural history.
The Haunted Foundations of American Horror
Dauber begins his exploration in colonial America, where he skillfully demonstrates how the earliest American horror stories emerged from very real terrors: the fear of divine punishment among Puritans, the dread of Native American attacks among settlers, and the horrific realities of slavery. His analysis of Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative and Cotton Mather's writings on witchcraft reveals how these early texts established patterns that would echo through centuries of American horror.
One of the book's greatest strengths is Dauber's ability to draw connections between seemingly disparate elements. He shows how the Salem witch trials, for instance, weren't just about supernatural fear but about societal control and the horror of false accusation – themes that would resurface in everything from The Crucible to modern political horror.
Literary Evolution and Social Commentary
The author's examination of the Gothic tradition's transformation on American soil is particularly insightful. Through careful analysis of works by Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dauber shows how American writers adapted European Gothic conventions to address uniquely American anxieties about identity, morality, and progress.
Strengths
Deep historical context and cultural analysis
Engaging writing style that balances academic insight with accessibility
Comprehensive coverage of both well-known and overlooked contributors to the genre
Thoughtful connections between historical events and their horror manifestations
Strong examination of how horror reflects societal fears across different eras
Areas for Improvement
Occasionally becomes too academic in tone, potentially alienating casual readers
Could have dedicated more space to international influences on American horror
Some contemporary horror creators receive relatively brief treatment
The final chapter feels somewhat rushed compared to earlier sections
Could have included more visual elements to support the text
The Modern Monster
Dauber's analysis truly shines when he reaches the 20th century, expertly dissecting how atomic age anxieties, civil rights struggles, and technological fears birthed new forms of horror. His examination of how Night of the Living Dead revolutionized both horror cinema and social commentary is particularly compelling.
Innovation in Structure
The book's organization deserves special praise. Rather than following a strictly chronological approach, Dauber weaves thematic threads that connect different eras, showing how similar fears manifest in different ways across time. This approach helps readers understand how horror evolves while fundamental anxieties remain constant.
Contemporary Relevance
The final sections of American Scary bring us to the present, with intelligent analysis of how filmmakers like Jordan Peele use horror to address contemporary social issues. Dauber convincingly argues that horror remains our most effective genre for processing societal trauma and confronting uncomfortable truths.
Critical Analysis
While American Scary is overwhelmingly successful in its ambitious scope, there are moments where Dauber's academic background leads to passages that might be too dense for casual readers. Additionally, some readers might wish for more extensive coverage of certain contemporary horror creators.
Final Verdict
American Scary is a masterful examination of horror's role in American culture. Dauber has created an essential text for understanding how our fears shape our stories and how those stories, in turn, shape us. While occasionally academic in tone, the book's insights and connections make it invaluable for anyone interested in horror or American cultural history.
October 19, 2024
Honestly I was hopeful in the beginning and then super disappointed by this book. It felt like just a reiteration of every horror story in America which I guess could be interesting to some people but I was hoping he would actually synthesize why any of that matters to what we think about horror and it just didn’t get there for me.
October 10, 2024
Best nonfiction book I’ve read in *a while*. If you have any interest in horror, literature, pop culture, history, and/or society as a whole, you should absolutely check this out.
October 27, 2024
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As a lover of everything horror and history, I’m basically the exact right audience for this book and it’s such a joy to read this October. 👻 This is exactly what I hope for in a nonfiction book: a deep understanding of the topic at hand with exhaustive research and tons of citations for further review written in an engaging, fun way.
I thought I knew everything there was to know about horror and I see now that I was so wrong. This book has taught me so much about both horror and history and I love the way Dauber interweaves these subjects.
All of that being said, I think this will more of a hit for people who like the super detailed history of things. What's fun and engaging for me won't be fun and engaging for anyone who doesn't have an intense interest in both horror and history at the same time.
Thanks to Algonquin Books for the arc!
As a lover of everything horror and history, I’m basically the exact right audience for this book and it’s such a joy to read this October. 👻 This is exactly what I hope for in a nonfiction book: a deep understanding of the topic at hand with exhaustive research and tons of citations for further review written in an engaging, fun way.
I thought I knew everything there was to know about horror and I see now that I was so wrong. This book has taught me so much about both horror and history and I love the way Dauber interweaves these subjects.
All of that being said, I think this will more of a hit for people who like the super detailed history of things. What's fun and engaging for me won't be fun and engaging for anyone who doesn't have an intense interest in both horror and history at the same time.
Thanks to Algonquin Books for the arc!
October 10, 2024
American Scary by Jonathan Dauber is a great compendium on things that we fear from True Crime to scary movies to scary books and everything in between. He went back to the americas beginning with the first murder trial the witch hunt in Salem Oregon to yellow journalism Edgar Allan Poe Jonathan peel and everything in between. Even the things I knew nothing about only added to my TBR pile on my TV W Netflix account but ultimately I was very surprised at all the stuff I knew about the things I didn’t know about it I know this review is vague just know there’s too much in this book because it is very long to give a complete and total review this is a great book that I absolutely enjoyed and thought I would never finish but I did… Yay me! #NetGalley,#AlgonquinBooks, #JonathanDauber, #AmericanScary,
November 21, 2024
3.5 stars, actually. This book covers so much - traces America's fears as demonstrated in horror, but with many other little ideas in there that make it less focused than I'd like. I felt like: how did he choose which books/movies to include or exclude? The book is chronological, and I enjoyed learning from the past and then seeing my position change as it covers the 80's, where I was a direct consumer. I consumed these horror movies and books, but was too young to connect them with larger cultural issues. And that is totally a wonderful way to engage in horror - just to be scared. Freddy Krueger is just scary regardless of what came before or after him. So I wonder how important or valuable it is to have the larger picture provided by this book. Also, there were a couple aha moments, but much of the book is just going over the chronological history of seminal horror works.
I would definitely not recommend this to someone who isn't a horror lover. Also, it made me appreciate that I don't love just "horror" in general; I really enjoy folk horror, supernatural horror, niches within this really vast genre.
I would definitely not recommend this to someone who isn't a horror lover. Also, it made me appreciate that I don't love just "horror" in general; I really enjoy folk horror, supernatural horror, niches within this really vast genre.
November 4, 2024
4.5 stars!
I wanted to have a good non-fiction audiobook to sink my teeth into and happened upon this by accident. I figured that it would be the perfect listen for October, and I'm very glad I picked it up! Dauber did extensive research on the full spectrum of horror - ranging from early horror folklore to Poe to King, all the way to horror movie and videogame franchises of today. I really enjoyed not only hearing more about some of my all-time favorite books, movies, and games but seeing how their origins can be traced back to various sources and how even original works can be linked to early horror concepts. I never really thought about it, but horror really can be used as a way to mark certain periods in history and the horror stories that are popular at any given time can indicate some of the societal issues or controversial topics that are important during that time. The only thing I didn't like is how long the chapters were - I think that there was so much material, that the author could have cut some of it to make it more digestible. But otherwise, this was fascinating!
I wanted to have a good non-fiction audiobook to sink my teeth into and happened upon this by accident. I figured that it would be the perfect listen for October, and I'm very glad I picked it up! Dauber did extensive research on the full spectrum of horror - ranging from early horror folklore to Poe to King, all the way to horror movie and videogame franchises of today. I really enjoyed not only hearing more about some of my all-time favorite books, movies, and games but seeing how their origins can be traced back to various sources and how even original works can be linked to early horror concepts. I never really thought about it, but horror really can be used as a way to mark certain periods in history and the horror stories that are popular at any given time can indicate some of the societal issues or controversial topics that are important during that time. The only thing I didn't like is how long the chapters were - I think that there was so much material, that the author could have cut some of it to make it more digestible. But otherwise, this was fascinating!
October 15, 2024
A chronological, encyclopedic commentary on the history of horror films. Yup, that’s the book. If that description sounds enjoyable to you, then this one is a winner!
December 7, 2024
This was absolutely fantastic. A history of scary, from film to tv, books to comics. Very comprehensive and current. Very very good!!!!!
November 17, 2024
This book is way too long. There is a lot of great material in here covering everything from the very earliest days of colonial America and the greats like Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King and some that were unfamiliar to me. Both movies and books are under the microscope and the author does a good job of helping the reader apply the horror stories to their times and the fears people had during those eras. It was becoming tiresome, however, as it just went on and on and I spent far more time reading it and finally wishing it would end. Probably a quarter of the book could have been omitted without affecting the message he was trying to convey. But at the end he begins his tirade against Donald Trump. What is with this obsession?? Your readers are from all political backgrounds and criticizing them is just not a good idea. Additionally, waiting until you have put them through a long, draining journey only to insult them near the end is just plain nasty. Get over your Trump Derangement Syndrome! I can think of many worse things in life than a president who wants to return us to normalcy.
November 25, 2024
To research this history, it is apparent the author read tons of books and watched a veritable plethora of movies, and it certainly seems that he wanted to be sure to mention each and every one of them. As a result, the book moves from source to source without spending enough time on any of them to help support his themes. This was a similar problem with the author's previous book on comics. Much of this material was covered in a far more entertaining fashion in Stephen King's Danse Macabre, and that came out more than 40 years ago.
Read
October 15, 2024So, this was kind of what I was looking for when I was reading "Men, Women, and Chainsaws" and other similar analysis books. However, this was a really dry read for me. It had the combination of history, analysis, and more, but it felt like a slog to get through. If you're interested, still try it out as it may work better for you.
August 3, 2024
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Algonquin Books for an advance copy of this book that looks at the cultural history of the genre of horror in American history drawing on all forms of media and history, and some unexpected sources.
People say you remember your first, but I don't remember what first drew me to horror stories. I assume Disney's Haunted Mansion, the one with Goofy, Donald and Mickey Mouse dealing with ghosts in a strange manor. But after that it becomes hazy. Comics lead me to science fiction and Star Wars, I read the Hobbit at a young age so that was fantasy. But horror, I knew I loved to be scared, but I don't know what the key point would be. In many ways I am like America in that different actions, different events have led to changes in what scares people. And that is true. I loved Universal Monsters, but new vampires, mummies and werewolves leave me cold. Halloween was a big thing at the time, Scream seemed to be ehh. Lovecraft I run hot and cold on. Stephen King's Night Shift is still the bellwether, the one book I remember every tale, and every feeling. America is a place of horrors, from government indifference, lack of health care, or this constant need to return to the past; children working in factories, races segregated, women just being breeding mares. These are the things that scare me now. And the reason why I loved this book. American Scary:A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond by Jeremy Dauber is a cultural history of horror drawing on everything that is uniquely American, for in many ways the horror genre is just a reflection of the society around it.
The book begins in the early days of America where clashing cultures of native americans and colonists were meeting, greeting and fighting to survive. Many of the early stories of horror were stories of massacres colonists, told of course to other colonists, and tales of people living with the natives. Starting an early tradition of having fear for the other. Witch trials make an appearance as does early folktales from other cultures, mainly the stories told by black slaves, that seeped into the American conscious. Combined with the strong religious values that many colonists held, these two ideas could only clash. Slavery was also a large influence on the scary stories people read and shared. The idea of slave uprisings was used to entertain, and to keep a tighter grip on slaves. This idea of control continued up into the 20th century with ideas of the "Yellow Peril" and other tales of the other stealing women and children away. This continues to the present day with lots of examples from all media, films, poetry, books, plays, comics and much more.
A really fantastic work both about America and the genre of horror. The book is exhaustive, but not exhausting, as Dauber has a way of writing that makes the reading interesting, and adding lots of examples, and many that would not usually appear in a book on horror. I can not imagine the amount of research this book took, as so much is covered, and covered well. Stong film discussion, with mentions about comics, plays and television shows. The worst thing about reading a book like this is how much I have missed and need to track down. In addition to writing about the arts, this is a very good look at the cultural history of the United States, one that looks at a lot of ignored history, even marginalized history and presents it to readers. One learns as much about the shame of this country in many ways, as one learns about video nasties and lost authors.
A really wonderful book that readers of horror, and readers of history will both get much out of. One could see a very good documentary being made from this. A great gift also for role players as there are a lot of interesting ideas, and situations that could be adapted into games, especially in the Arkham games, or any role playing horror adventures. I know the author, Jeremy Dauber, has a book on comics, I am quite looking forward to reading that.
People say you remember your first, but I don't remember what first drew me to horror stories. I assume Disney's Haunted Mansion, the one with Goofy, Donald and Mickey Mouse dealing with ghosts in a strange manor. But after that it becomes hazy. Comics lead me to science fiction and Star Wars, I read the Hobbit at a young age so that was fantasy. But horror, I knew I loved to be scared, but I don't know what the key point would be. In many ways I am like America in that different actions, different events have led to changes in what scares people. And that is true. I loved Universal Monsters, but new vampires, mummies and werewolves leave me cold. Halloween was a big thing at the time, Scream seemed to be ehh. Lovecraft I run hot and cold on. Stephen King's Night Shift is still the bellwether, the one book I remember every tale, and every feeling. America is a place of horrors, from government indifference, lack of health care, or this constant need to return to the past; children working in factories, races segregated, women just being breeding mares. These are the things that scare me now. And the reason why I loved this book. American Scary:A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond by Jeremy Dauber is a cultural history of horror drawing on everything that is uniquely American, for in many ways the horror genre is just a reflection of the society around it.
The book begins in the early days of America where clashing cultures of native americans and colonists were meeting, greeting and fighting to survive. Many of the early stories of horror were stories of massacres colonists, told of course to other colonists, and tales of people living with the natives. Starting an early tradition of having fear for the other. Witch trials make an appearance as does early folktales from other cultures, mainly the stories told by black slaves, that seeped into the American conscious. Combined with the strong religious values that many colonists held, these two ideas could only clash. Slavery was also a large influence on the scary stories people read and shared. The idea of slave uprisings was used to entertain, and to keep a tighter grip on slaves. This idea of control continued up into the 20th century with ideas of the "Yellow Peril" and other tales of the other stealing women and children away. This continues to the present day with lots of examples from all media, films, poetry, books, plays, comics and much more.
A really fantastic work both about America and the genre of horror. The book is exhaustive, but not exhausting, as Dauber has a way of writing that makes the reading interesting, and adding lots of examples, and many that would not usually appear in a book on horror. I can not imagine the amount of research this book took, as so much is covered, and covered well. Stong film discussion, with mentions about comics, plays and television shows. The worst thing about reading a book like this is how much I have missed and need to track down. In addition to writing about the arts, this is a very good look at the cultural history of the United States, one that looks at a lot of ignored history, even marginalized history and presents it to readers. One learns as much about the shame of this country in many ways, as one learns about video nasties and lost authors.
A really wonderful book that readers of horror, and readers of history will both get much out of. One could see a very good documentary being made from this. A great gift also for role players as there are a lot of interesting ideas, and situations that could be adapted into games, especially in the Arkham games, or any role playing horror adventures. I know the author, Jeremy Dauber, has a book on comics, I am quite looking forward to reading that.
October 6, 2024
I'd been excited to read this for a while, since I quite enjoyed his books on comics and Sholom Aleichem, which, I dunno, may be one of the more broadly different three-book achievements in a while, especially for an academic. There's a lot here that's familiar if you've read in the field, and toward the end he seems to be getting a little tired--a large number of products are referred to as "brilliant" in the last section, possibly too many of them. On the other hand, this is really the first history of horror that I'd call as much intellectual history as cultural history; he's alive to how tropes of possession, ghosts, zombies, etc. can crop up in discussions of the onset of the machine, or a captivity narrative, or journalism about AIDS, or 50s psychology. As such, he can move back and forth among novels and short fiction (not to mention dipping into slick-magazine fiction's engagement with and invocation of these notions), film, and various kinds of nonfiction that all make the essential point--which verges on new-historicist--about how broadly useful monsters and monstrosity have been to think with.
The earlier material feels more original to me, especially his discussions of the lingering afterlives of Salem (who was at fault here, and how does your ascription of blame tie into your theories of the world?) and the Civil War, and the use of the supernatural to capture something of the feel of the gilded-age city; there's a neat section on western writers' use of racist tropes about Asian Americans when describing gaslight San Francisco, for instance, and discussions of books you wouldn't expect here, like Crane's Maggie.
Later, sure, you're got a lot of what you'd expect: HPL and Shirley Jackson and Stephen King and Anne Rice and vampires-and-sex and zombies-and-capitalism. (Also, that weird brief werewolf renaissance in the early 80s.) But also some neat segues--the argumentative construction here is quite artful, which I suppose it had better be, given the length and density of a book with over 400pp of text that has so few chapters. So, for instance, there's a neat little return-of-the-repressed bit about the trope of "Indian burial grounds" as an explanation in the 80s, with a discussion of its at-best ambiguous political ramifications, which segues into a discussion of Native writers like Erika T. Wurth and Stephen Graham Jones. Also, he's great on both short-story writers everyone has read (Bradbury), some people have read (Bloch), and those only genre nerds read (Charles Beaumont, say, or old John Collier, or Anthony Boucher's WWII weird fiction).
Which of course meant that I had to control myself before I ordered too many books by people I might have read some of, or read years ago, or not at all. I did OK with that. Not great, tbh, but OK. Would definitely use this to teach a class, assuming I could get enough students to take it.
The earlier material feels more original to me, especially his discussions of the lingering afterlives of Salem (who was at fault here, and how does your ascription of blame tie into your theories of the world?) and the Civil War, and the use of the supernatural to capture something of the feel of the gilded-age city; there's a neat section on western writers' use of racist tropes about Asian Americans when describing gaslight San Francisco, for instance, and discussions of books you wouldn't expect here, like Crane's Maggie.
Later, sure, you're got a lot of what you'd expect: HPL and Shirley Jackson and Stephen King and Anne Rice and vampires-and-sex and zombies-and-capitalism. (Also, that weird brief werewolf renaissance in the early 80s.) But also some neat segues--the argumentative construction here is quite artful, which I suppose it had better be, given the length and density of a book with over 400pp of text that has so few chapters. So, for instance, there's a neat little return-of-the-repressed bit about the trope of "Indian burial grounds" as an explanation in the 80s, with a discussion of its at-best ambiguous political ramifications, which segues into a discussion of Native writers like Erika T. Wurth and Stephen Graham Jones. Also, he's great on both short-story writers everyone has read (Bradbury), some people have read (Bloch), and those only genre nerds read (Charles Beaumont, say, or old John Collier, or Anthony Boucher's WWII weird fiction).
Which of course meant that I had to control myself before I ordered too many books by people I might have read some of, or read years ago, or not at all. I did OK with that. Not great, tbh, but OK. Would definitely use this to teach a class, assuming I could get enough students to take it.
Read
November 18, 2024The world of horror writing has been with us for centuries. Over time, it has crawled from its infancy into a literary force to be reckoned with. It has come in many guises and forms, from the printed page to leaping from the silver screen and the television screens, that many are glued to for the next installment of that series.
Jeremy Dauber, has created an epic volume, that covers horror from so many facets, even ways that we never even may have realized it existed. Dauber, a professor of Jewish literature and American studies at Columbia University, has taken us back through the mists of time, to showcase where the intricacies of horror began, and gives credence to why it has lasted so long, getting stronger and more in-demand by the decade.
It takes us as far back to Native America, when the Puritans arrived with their beliefs and traditions. There were possible creatures in the dark woods, and it was the thought of what you could not see, but rather sensed, that perhaps offered the real horror. It was during the Salem Witch Trials, that true horrors were the order of the day, with suspicion outweighing fact, where the devil and his disciples were thought to be everywhere, therefore the necessity to rid the world of his minions, even if there was no concrete evidence.
Dauber follows the passion for all things horror-related, to some of the other classic authors who helped define the field, and therefore keep it in demand in the decades following. Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, and countless others, pioneered the horror tale, keeping the thirst there, and creating a genre that has definitely taken popularity to new heights.
In 1910, Thomas Edison Thomas Edison released a ten minute film based on Frankenstein. Crude perhaps, but it proved its point and found its audience, adding more fuel to the infatuation with all things dark, frightening, and intimidating.
What sets the book apart, is that Dauber groups in so many notions of horror from the innocent-seeming to the downright macabre. There have been so many transitional creations that kept horror very alive, such as Weird Tales, the classic pulp magazine debuting in 1923. Horror has run rampant in all its forms, and whether it is thanks to vampires, space creatures, werewolves, zombies, witches, ghosts, and any other thing that goes bump in the night, we have embraced horror to the max.
It flourished on television with Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Dark Shadows, and ran rampant in Hollywood, with franchises of Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and slasher films that seem more prone to have the word “massacre” in the title.
Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Saul, and Anne Rice, were more contemporary horror writers that kept the genre alive, pumping out gore and more en masse. AMERICAN SCARY speaks to what we feared most for centuries, taking us into realms that even if they scare the true hell out of us, we still keeping coming back for more.
Jeremy Dauber, has created an epic volume, that covers horror from so many facets, even ways that we never even may have realized it existed. Dauber, a professor of Jewish literature and American studies at Columbia University, has taken us back through the mists of time, to showcase where the intricacies of horror began, and gives credence to why it has lasted so long, getting stronger and more in-demand by the decade.
It takes us as far back to Native America, when the Puritans arrived with their beliefs and traditions. There were possible creatures in the dark woods, and it was the thought of what you could not see, but rather sensed, that perhaps offered the real horror. It was during the Salem Witch Trials, that true horrors were the order of the day, with suspicion outweighing fact, where the devil and his disciples were thought to be everywhere, therefore the necessity to rid the world of his minions, even if there was no concrete evidence.
Dauber follows the passion for all things horror-related, to some of the other classic authors who helped define the field, and therefore keep it in demand in the decades following. Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, and countless others, pioneered the horror tale, keeping the thirst there, and creating a genre that has definitely taken popularity to new heights.
In 1910, Thomas Edison Thomas Edison released a ten minute film based on Frankenstein. Crude perhaps, but it proved its point and found its audience, adding more fuel to the infatuation with all things dark, frightening, and intimidating.
What sets the book apart, is that Dauber groups in so many notions of horror from the innocent-seeming to the downright macabre. There have been so many transitional creations that kept horror very alive, such as Weird Tales, the classic pulp magazine debuting in 1923. Horror has run rampant in all its forms, and whether it is thanks to vampires, space creatures, werewolves, zombies, witches, ghosts, and any other thing that goes bump in the night, we have embraced horror to the max.
It flourished on television with Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Dark Shadows, and ran rampant in Hollywood, with franchises of Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and slasher films that seem more prone to have the word “massacre” in the title.
Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Saul, and Anne Rice, were more contemporary horror writers that kept the genre alive, pumping out gore and more en masse. AMERICAN SCARY speaks to what we feared most for centuries, taking us into realms that even if they scare the true hell out of us, we still keeping coming back for more.
September 2, 2024
September is finally here and even though it’s still hot here I can detect a hint of 🍂 autumn 🍂in the air. It also means it is officially spooky season. I was lucky enough to receive this gifted copy of American Scary from @novelsuspects and @algonquinbooks and it was my most recent read and got me in the mood for spooky season. It also gave me a great deal of insight that will no doubt cause me to look at the books I read and the movies I watch differently and with a new depth of understanding.
Jeremy Dauber’s American Scary is an in-depth look at the history of horror in America. It asks the question what scares us and then ties it to the cultural landscape of the United States. It begins with colonial times and the hardships early settler faced, the witch trials and even into folk tales told by slaves. It looks in depth at the evolution of horror literature- from Lovecraft to Jackson to King. And of course there is horror in film. The eerie suspense films of Hitchcock to the cultural horror of Jordan Peele, it is all covered in this outstanding book.
I really enjoyed this book. It is not a quick read simply because it is packed with so much information, but I was glued to the pages throughout. I loved that in addition to being a history of the horror genre, it is also a cultural history of the United States. The way Dauber intertwines the two is fascinating. Hernandez dives deeply into the dark and ugly parts of our nation’s past and exposes our shame and then ties it to our collective fears.
This was such an interesting book. Well researched and packed with history yet it never felt like a textbook. I could not stop reading it. If you love horror pick this book up immediately. It is also perfect for people that love history and cultural analysis. I imagine this is a book a will refer back to for many years.
Jeremy Dauber’s American Scary is an in-depth look at the history of horror in America. It asks the question what scares us and then ties it to the cultural landscape of the United States. It begins with colonial times and the hardships early settler faced, the witch trials and even into folk tales told by slaves. It looks in depth at the evolution of horror literature- from Lovecraft to Jackson to King. And of course there is horror in film. The eerie suspense films of Hitchcock to the cultural horror of Jordan Peele, it is all covered in this outstanding book.
I really enjoyed this book. It is not a quick read simply because it is packed with so much information, but I was glued to the pages throughout. I loved that in addition to being a history of the horror genre, it is also a cultural history of the United States. The way Dauber intertwines the two is fascinating. Hernandez dives deeply into the dark and ugly parts of our nation’s past and exposes our shame and then ties it to our collective fears.
This was such an interesting book. Well researched and packed with history yet it never felt like a textbook. I could not stop reading it. If you love horror pick this book up immediately. It is also perfect for people that love history and cultural analysis. I imagine this is a book a will refer back to for many years.
October 15, 2024
There is plenty of real-life horror in the world, today and throughout history. But even the horror of the paranormal, the supernatural, and the other-worldly often holds up a mirror to our contemporary fears and anxieties. Look, for example, at how many films from 2024 alone have dealt with the trauma of forced pregnancy and the physical brutality of childbirth: Immaculate, The First Omen, Alien: Romulus, even Beetlejuice Beetlejuice... it's almost as if there's something in the past few years that could have brought the horror of losing one's bodily autonomy and reproductive rights to the forefront.
And this is in no way a new thing. Horror has always dealt with the fears of our times, for better or worse. The exhaustive, often textbook-like accounting of Jeremy Dauber's excellent American Scary traces these fears and the fictions they spawn throughout the history of the United States. Covering unease both progressive and reactionary, Dauber not only looks at the obvious lineages and influences across horror film, books, and other media, but also deftly weaves a tale of an American history of the uncanny and the all-too-real.
While I found the later sections of this to be the most interesting, mainly as the book is told chronologically and I had read many more of the books and seen many more of the films discussed in the 20th and 21st century segments in comparison to the earlier chapters, I thought it was a fascinatingly well-researched and well-documented book overall. Dauber does a thorough job of tying each of his references into his thesis (and adding to my TBR/to-watch list with quite a few of the pieces he cites) and creating an overall picture of horror that draws from a broad range of sources that includes both the mainstays and the marginalized for a well-rounded, in-depth spectrum of the uncanny in America.
And this is in no way a new thing. Horror has always dealt with the fears of our times, for better or worse. The exhaustive, often textbook-like accounting of Jeremy Dauber's excellent American Scary traces these fears and the fictions they spawn throughout the history of the United States. Covering unease both progressive and reactionary, Dauber not only looks at the obvious lineages and influences across horror film, books, and other media, but also deftly weaves a tale of an American history of the uncanny and the all-too-real.
While I found the later sections of this to be the most interesting, mainly as the book is told chronologically and I had read many more of the books and seen many more of the films discussed in the 20th and 21st century segments in comparison to the earlier chapters, I thought it was a fascinatingly well-researched and well-documented book overall. Dauber does a thorough job of tying each of his references into his thesis (and adding to my TBR/to-watch list with quite a few of the pieces he cites) and creating an overall picture of horror that draws from a broad range of sources that includes both the mainstays and the marginalized for a well-rounded, in-depth spectrum of the uncanny in America.
October 7, 2024
I was ready for a history lesson, not a lesson in literary criticism.
That may seem harsh, but for a reader like me who likes to read nonfiction for entertainment, asking me to read nearly 500 pages of text that reads as dry and flat as any textbook I read in college is asking a bit too much. I feel that’s even more applicable for me personally when it comes to the horror genre, which is my favorite movie genre and one of my top literary genres.
American Scary is very interesting, full of historical facts, figures, and events that influenced the horror genre tracing back to the 17th century in both Europe and in North America (since colonialism was all the rage back then). The book is well-researched and has an ample bibliography that’s obviously well-sourced. This is no slip-shod job, but it’s not going to be a book for every casual nonfiction reader. It’s very dense, packed with information, and the first third of the book may feel irrelevant to readers who don’t have an interest in horror that’s only literary in origin.
If you really enjoy in-depth examination of a genre or love a true examination of how history and art influencer one another over time, then this would be a great read for you.
I was provided a copy of the digital ARC of this title by the author and the publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thanks also to the author and Algonquin Books for providing me with a copy of the physical ARC via their influencer program without expectation of review, positive or negative. All reviews rated three stars or lower will not appear on my social media. Thank you.
File Under: History/Nonfiction
That may seem harsh, but for a reader like me who likes to read nonfiction for entertainment, asking me to read nearly 500 pages of text that reads as dry and flat as any textbook I read in college is asking a bit too much. I feel that’s even more applicable for me personally when it comes to the horror genre, which is my favorite movie genre and one of my top literary genres.
American Scary is very interesting, full of historical facts, figures, and events that influenced the horror genre tracing back to the 17th century in both Europe and in North America (since colonialism was all the rage back then). The book is well-researched and has an ample bibliography that’s obviously well-sourced. This is no slip-shod job, but it’s not going to be a book for every casual nonfiction reader. It’s very dense, packed with information, and the first third of the book may feel irrelevant to readers who don’t have an interest in horror that’s only literary in origin.
If you really enjoy in-depth examination of a genre or love a true examination of how history and art influencer one another over time, then this would be a great read for you.
I was provided a copy of the digital ARC of this title by the author and the publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thanks also to the author and Algonquin Books for providing me with a copy of the physical ARC via their influencer program without expectation of review, positive or negative. All reviews rated three stars or lower will not appear on my social media. Thank you.
File Under: History/Nonfiction
November 8, 2024
American Scary is offers a comprehensive history of the horror genre (both fictional and nonfiction) in American culture, from the colonial era through the present day. This book traces the various cultural anxieties (various wars, moral panics, and violences of colonialism) that inform narrative trends (haunted houses, monster movies, witch stories of all kinds) and the arrival of new media (radio, television, and so on). I appreciated the detailed attention to the various trends in the genre, particularly in how recurring motifs, characters, and story types developed and changed over time and across media. I also appreciated the comprehensive focus on relevant examples. However, as the media landscape grew more densely populated by the 20th century, the list of examples became somewhat overwhelming, diluting the argumentative throughline. By the second half of the book, I often found myself wishing for more information on particular examples that intrigued me. I would also struggle to trace the argumentative connections between the different subtrends over time.
I appreciate this book as a one-stop source to identify the social anxieties reflected in the horror genre. While the argument gets diluted at points, this book operates as a comprehensive—if somewhat overwhelmingly detailed—overview.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I appreciate this book as a one-stop source to identify the social anxieties reflected in the horror genre. While the argument gets diluted at points, this book operates as a comprehensive—if somewhat overwhelmingly detailed—overview.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
October 14, 2024
If you can manage to work Washington Irving and Buffy the Vampire Slayer into the same piece of nonfiction, you have my full attention.
This is a very dense but also very readable compendium of the history of American horror, and exceptionally completist in a good way.
If you’ve got a solid background in history and literature, most of the content in the early chapters won’t come as a surprise to you, though Dauber’s thoughts on it are still worth hearing even if the information is a bit basic.
The latter parts felt more like new information, especially with regard to some of the film criticism and social history informing horror films. There’s some overlap between this and Horror for Weenies, though the tone is very different.
I struggled a bit in the early-middle parts of the book, largely because the civil war stuff is more theory than criticism of actual content, which I didn’t love. Other than that, no complaints. Thoroughly researched, thoughtful, and well-paced.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
This is a very dense but also very readable compendium of the history of American horror, and exceptionally completist in a good way.
If you’ve got a solid background in history and literature, most of the content in the early chapters won’t come as a surprise to you, though Dauber’s thoughts on it are still worth hearing even if the information is a bit basic.
The latter parts felt more like new information, especially with regard to some of the film criticism and social history informing horror films. There’s some overlap between this and Horror for Weenies, though the tone is very different.
I struggled a bit in the early-middle parts of the book, largely because the civil war stuff is more theory than criticism of actual content, which I didn’t love. Other than that, no complaints. Thoroughly researched, thoughtful, and well-paced.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
October 31, 2024
So, as the title says, this book attempts to cover a history of horror, from Salem to present (like 2023). Accordingly, there is an EXTENSIVE amount of material to cover. Given the amount of breadth to cover, the author is not able to go into any great deal of depth on any one particular topic. Of course, certain movies/books/movements/things are given greater detail than others, but really this is more appropriately described as a vast survey. I personally was hoping for something more in-depth and narrow in focus (for example, a history of horror movies might be something I personally find more appealing). Because the author wants to focus on all types of content as well as what is happening culturally and politically, there's just so much to cover and it can be a bit jumbled, given short shrift, and confusing. Despite this, I think this is a worth ready/skim if you are interested in adding some new horror content to your repetoire.
November 7, 2024
This was an extremely interesting and in depth read. History class was never my thing, but I’ve always loved learning history through different vehicles (see: the five art history courses I took in college), this one being stories of horror.
This book goes through hundreds(? feels like it) of examples, the subjects of terror (monsters, ghosts, technology, plagues, mental health, slashers, serial killers, etc.), and what was happening at the time period to influence how that horror was shaped for mass consumption. We also get a good look at how that genre was perceived over time. This starts with the Salem witch trials and spans all the way to Donald Trumps presidency (gag, but yes scary).
Super informational setup, would absolutely suggest as an audiobook, would assume this would be quite dry to physically read, would recommend to horror buffs or anyone who has an itch to learn in depth about a random, new topic.
This book goes through hundreds(? feels like it) of examples, the subjects of terror (monsters, ghosts, technology, plagues, mental health, slashers, serial killers, etc.), and what was happening at the time period to influence how that horror was shaped for mass consumption. We also get a good look at how that genre was perceived over time. This starts with the Salem witch trials and spans all the way to Donald Trumps presidency (gag, but yes scary).
Super informational setup, would absolutely suggest as an audiobook, would assume this would be quite dry to physically read, would recommend to horror buffs or anyone who has an itch to learn in depth about a random, new topic.
December 16, 2024
Another reviewer said it best, “exhaustive and exhausting.” The scope of the novel is perhaps too large, often losing sight of its central thesis and morphing instead into an encyclopedia-length literature review. It feels as if no short story, tv show, movie, novel, video game, or real-world incident goes unmentioned, often laden with references, which come off as in-jokes. Many of these, in certain, were entirely lost upon me; I simply haven’t read the book/seen the movie/played the game. Seemingly focused more on hitting every point, I’m left with a feeling of wanting more in-depth discussion of specific moments, rather than a speedrun through centuries (after ~120 pages we discuss the Civil War, and by page 400, we’re onto the Jan. 6 insurrection) of media. Bonus points for a reference to Jackie Daytona, American bartender.
November 3, 2024
First of all, this book should probably have had a massive "SPOILER ALERT" on it because as it goes through the history of horror in the media, it does reveal a lot of endings and twists.
This book took me awhile to get through. It felt like a neverending stream of consciousness. It also had MULTIPLE (I caught at least five) spelling and context errors. One error was claiming an incident happened in Texas when it happened in Oklahoma, and even a few sentences later it mentions the correct location. It seemed very sloppily edited.
That being said, it was an interesting book that pointed out a lot of things I might have otherwise missed, even if it did ruin a few endings, but I guess a lot of them are old enough that I should have watched or read them already, but still . . .
This book took me awhile to get through. It felt like a neverending stream of consciousness. It also had MULTIPLE (I caught at least five) spelling and context errors. One error was claiming an incident happened in Texas when it happened in Oklahoma, and even a few sentences later it mentions the correct location. It seemed very sloppily edited.
That being said, it was an interesting book that pointed out a lot of things I might have otherwise missed, even if it did ruin a few endings, but I guess a lot of them are old enough that I should have watched or read them already, but still . . .
August 18, 2024
I loved this book! The author takes us from colonial times to the 2010's, covering fiction, film, and websites. I learned that there was plenty of gore in the writings of early America and that a lot of women in the late 1890's and early 1900's wrote and published horror stories.
The author was heavily influenced by Stephen King's "Danse Macabre," a book published in 1980 that discussed the origins of horror.
The greatest thing about the book was that I learned of stories and films that I think I would enjoy.
I'd recommend this book for a university library, although any horror fan would enjoy it.
*ARC provided by Edelweiss+*
The author was heavily influenced by Stephen King's "Danse Macabre," a book published in 1980 that discussed the origins of horror.
The greatest thing about the book was that I learned of stories and films that I think I would enjoy.
I'd recommend this book for a university library, although any horror fan would enjoy it.
*ARC provided by Edelweiss+*
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