Known primarily as a novelist, Gibson has, over thirty years, been approached by different publication to share his insights into contemporary culture. The resulting essays are collected here for the first time.

Presents a tour of Christmas holiday traditions from the original festival through today, touching on subjects ranging from gift wrap and the holiday parade to the first gag holiday gift book and the first official appearance of Santa Claus. "Nearly everything you know about Christmas is wrong. Do you think the proclaimed war on Christmas is a recent occurrence? Do you think Santa is Dutch, or that his red suit was brought to you courtesy of Coca-Cola?...

"The Female Monster is alive and well in the pop-cultural imagination. What does she tell us about ourselves and how we live today? Funny, smart and encyclopedic, nimbly addressing everyone from the biblical Lilith, to the movie Carrie, to Hae Min Lee (whose death was the focus of the first season of "Serial") to the cult film "The Craft", this book explores the female dark side, as represented in female monsters throughout pop culture. These monsters...

Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: one, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, able to cope with complexity and to separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this "other society," comforting, reassuring images, fantasies, slogans and a celebration of violence push reality, complexity and nuance to the margins....

"In this perceptive and provocative essay collection, an award-winning writer shares her personal and reportorial investigation into America's search for meaning."--

"Wiegand introduces -- or re-introduces -- us to lawmen such as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp and outlaws such as the Younger and James Brothers, as well as larger-than-life figures such as Buffalo Bill and George Custer. He details the stories of these real-life legends, the aftermath and legacies they left behind, and the innumerable myths frequently attributed to them. Wiegand expands his contemporary spotlight on America's 100th birthday year to...

Explores the phenomenon of online shaming and offers practical guidance on how to prevent cyber blunders and cyber bullies. Scheff and Schorr explore the phenomenon of online shaming. They offer practical guidance on how to prevent cyber blunders and cyber bullies.

"Manuel Betancourt has long lustfully coveted masculinity -- in part because he so lacked it. As a child in Bogotá, Colombia, he grew up with the social pressure to appear strong, manly, and, ultimately, straight. And yet in the films and television he avidly watched, Betancourt saw glimmers of different possibilities. From the stars of telenovelas and the princes of Disney films to pop sensation Ricky Martin and teen heartthrobs in shows like Saved...

The best-selling author of Bad Religion presents a compelling portrait of how the superficial turbulence of today's world has become defined by economic stagnation, political stalemates, demographic decline and cultural exhaustion. --Publisher When a rich and powerful society ceases advancing -- a combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemates, cultural exhaustion, and demographic decline -- it...

The New York Times best selling co-author of Sex at Dawn explores the ways in which 'progress' has perverted the way we live: how people eat, learn, feel, mate, parent, communicate, work, and die. Prehistoric life was not without serious dangers and disadvantages: many babies died in infancy; a broken bone, infected wound, snakebite, or difficult pregnancy could be life-threatening. Were these pre-civilized dangers more murderous than modern scourges...