How the U.S. has become a place where “reality and fantasy are weirdly and dangerously blurred and commingled” is the subject of author Kurt Andersen’s free, public presentation 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, in WSU’s CUB Junior Ballroom. This presentation also will be streamed online.
Andersen wrote the bestselling book “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire.” His lecture is hosted by WSU’s Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service and cosponsored by the School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, and the Departments of History and English.
Today’s era of wild conspiracy thinking, fake news and irrational politics is often viewed as a crazy, new phenomenon, but according to Andersen it is the result of attitudes and instincts that has made America exceptional throughout its history. Andersen traces America’s 500‑year journey of intense individualism, irregular religiosity and preoccupation with celebrity and get-rich-quick thinking to explain how we have come to this point in history.
Andersen’s book is a “fun, incisive and sobering look at how America is really an exceptional nation,” said Cornell Clayton, director of the Foley Institute.
Andersen graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, where he edited the Harvard Lampoon. He is the author of numerous books and novels and is a former columnist for The New York Times as well as The New Yorker and TIME Magazine. His career started at TIME during the 1980s when he received awards for his writing on politics and criminal justice.
In 1986 he co‑founded “Spy” magazine with E. Graydon Carter. Andersen also co‑created and currently hosts Studio 360, a cultural magazine show produced by Public Radio international. The show won Peabody Awards for broadcast excellence in 2005 and 20013.
