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The supernatural--psychic phenomena (telepathy, clairvoyance, or ESP), communicating with the dead, and the sighting and tracking of ghosts--has played an integral role in American culture across the last century. In fact, attention and interest in the supernatural has increased, despite our society's reliance upon and enthusiasm for science and technology. Even some top scholars, officials from the military and police, and public figures in places as high as the Oval Office have believed in at least some aspects of the supernatural.

"Supernatural America: A Cultural History" is the...

From April to October in 1964 and 1965, some 52 million people from around the world flocked to the New York World s Fair, an experience that lives on in the memory of many individuals and in America s collective consciousness. Taking a perceptive look back at "the last of the great world s fairs," Lawrence R. Samuel offers a thought-provoking portrait of this seminal event and of the cultural climate that surrounded it. Compared to its predecessors the fair was, he suggests, "the ugly duckling of global expositions." Sheer attendance made it one of the most popular of these fairs, but its...

The middle class is often viewed as the heart of American society, the key to the country s democracy and prosperity. Most Americans believe they belong to this group, and few politicians can hope to be elected without promising to serve the middle class. Yet today the American middle class is increasingly seen as under threat. In "The American Middle Class: A Cultural History," Lawrence R. Samuel charts the rise and fall of this most definitive American population, from its triumphant emergence in the post-World War II years to the struggles of the present day.

Between the 1920s and...

Aging is a preoccupation shared by beauty bloggers, serious journalists, scientists, doctors, celebrities--arguably all of adult America, given the pervasiveness of the crusade against it in popular culture and the media. We take our youth-oriented culture as a given but, as Lawrence R. Samuel argues, this was not always the case. Old age was revered in early America, in part because it was so rare. Indeed, it was not until the 1960s, according to Samuel, that the story of aging in America became the one we are most familiar with today: aging is a disease that science will one day cure,...

From April 1964 to October 1965, some 52 million people from around
the world flocked to the New York World s Fair, an experience that lives
on in the memory of many individuals and in America s collective consciousness.
Taking a perceptive look back at "the last of the great world s
fairs," Samuel offers a vivid portrait of this seminal event and of the
cultural climate that surrounded it. He also counters critics assessments
of the fair as the "ugly duckling" of global expositions. Opening five
months after President Kennedy s assassination, the fair allowed...

There is no better way to understand America than by understanding the cultural history of the American Dream. Rather than just a powerful philosophy or ideology, the Dream is thoroughly woven into the fabric of everyday life, playing a vital role in who we are, what we do, and why we do it. No other idea or mythology has as much influence on our individual and collective lives. Tracing the history of the phrase in popular culture, Samuel gives readers a field guide to the evolution of our national identity over the last eighty years.

Samuel tells the story chronologically, revealing...