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American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond
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
480 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
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.
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.
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.
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+*
October 4, 2024
As a relatively new convert to horror (I spent most of my life terrified of the genre and only engaging with it when I was pressured into it), I read an advanced copy of American Scary with great interest. Even though I was expecting more of a breezy, commercial read, I appreciated the depth in which Dauber explored this topic. It's fascinating and well researched.
Want to read
September 27, 2024I’m curious as to WHY this book won the author a Jewish award, but I’m still interested in reading it and what he’s got to say about Americans and our fear fetish. 🤭
October 6, 2024
If I had a complaint, it would be this felt like reading a textbook at times. That said, it is thorough and insightful.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews