Our America: Two Readings from Cultural Critiques

In The Sky Is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids, and Superheroes Made America Great for Extremism bestselling cultural critic Peter Biskind takes us on a dizzying ride across two decades of pop culture to show how the TV and movies we love—from superhero franchises such as the “Dark Knight,” “X-Men,” and the “Avengers” and series like “The Walking Dead” and “Game of Thrones” to thrillers like Homeland and 24—are saturated with the values that are currently animating our extreme politics. Chris Stirewalt’s Every Man a King is a rollicking history of an American attitude that has shaped not only our current moment, but also the long struggle over who gets to define the truths we hold to be self-evident.