W. Scott Poole is a professor of history at the College of Charleston who teaches and writes about horror and popular culture. His past books include the award–winning Monsters in America and the biography Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror. He is a Bram Stoker Award nominee for his critically acclaimed biography of H. P. Lovecraft, In the Mountains of Madness.
Praise for Wasteland
“Wasteland, W. Scott Poole’s exploration of some of the Great War’s
consequences for popular art, is fully attuned to the conflict’s
devastating psychological impact . . . Highly persuasive . . .
Poole’s general conclusions about World War I’s transformation into
art, and the process of psychological displacement that accompanied
it, are incontestable.”
—D.J. Taylor, The Wall Street Journal
“By approaching horror less like a film or literary genre and more
as a mode of storytelling, Poole casts a wide net for his
admittedly bitter history. Wasteland explores the postwar output of
writers, poets, painters, and filmmakers alike, moving neatly
between the works of artists from Franz Kafka to James Whale. He
also draws direct connections between emerging horror icons and the
medicine and machinery that allowed more than 40 million people to
die during the war . . . A must–read for those chasing our own
cultural demons, real or imagined.”
—Matthew Monagle, The Austin Chronicle
“W. Scott Poole makes a compelling case that [the First World War]
launched a great age of horror fiction . . . Poole has made an
important contribution to cultural history. Wasteland reveals how
horror stories can have even darker roots.”
—Bryan Alexander, Reason
“Tackling the indescribable horrors of wartime is a delicate but
necessary task, as Poole ventures in his latest title. Beginning
with the Great War, the author exhaustively discusses the
influences each era’s war had on their directors, writers, actors
and audiences of the horror genre, all while giving history lessons
of the war in tow.”
—Fangoria
“Poole writes with empathic insight . . . The arc of Wasteland
spans wide across the arts . . . He writes fluidly and with sharp
intent about the traumatized and boundary shattering anxieties shot
through the work of the postwar surrealists, the war–inflected
apocalyptic racist horror of Lovecraft, and what he sees as the
shadow of war in the fiction of Kafka . . . His skilled knitting
together of a broad range of genres and the spirit of unease
permeating them all carries its own salient kind of moral
horror.”
—Chris Barsanti, Rain Taxi
“A sophisticated work of cultural history . . . The book's
wide–ranging erudition, strong prose, and clear love and
fascination with both history and horror . . . will appeal to a
variety of readers.”
—Jesse Kavadlo, PopMatters
“[A] fascinating new book about how [World War I] reshaped western
culture . . . Poole is a very gifted writer.”
—Gene Walz, Winnipeg Free Press
“Poole brings a scholar’s eye to the horror found in literature,
film and other artistic expressions ever since [World War I] . . .
Wasteland will appeal to film and military buffs, horror fans,
those interested in popular culture and those who seek a better
understanding of the escalating violence of the last 100 years . .
. A fascinating read.”
—Bill Schwab, The Missourian
“Wasteland spans multiple nations, dozens of battles, and traces
how warfare influenced artists of all crafts. Moving beyond
prejudiced perceptions of high– and low–brow art, as well as the
various designations used to pigeonhole artists, Poole reveals the
connective tissue holding together the bones of modern
monsters.”
—Charleston City Paper
“A fascinating read.”
—Vampires.com
“Thoroughly engrossing cultural study . . . Poole persuasively
argues that the birth of horror as a genre is rooted in the
unprecedented destruction and carnage of WWI . . . Will make it
hard for readers who haven’t considered the wartime context for
horror’s emergence to forget it.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Poole brings a scholar's eye and a devotee's heart to a study of
the literary, film, and artistic incarnations of horror from the
World War I period to today.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Elegantly written and cogently argued, Wasteland convincingly
demonstrates the modern horror genre's origins in the great Dance
of Death that was the First World War.”
—David J. Skal, author of The Monster Show: A Cultural History of
Horror
“W. Scott Poole combines smart readings of the horror classics with
detailed knowledge of twentieth–century history, art, and
literature to dig deep into the serious side of these popular
entertainments. I thought I already knew the subject inside out,
but Wasteland introduced me to fresh facts, new ideas, and
surprising connections. This is cultural history of a very high
order: intelligent, lively, and wonderfully readable.”
—Christopher Bram, author of Gods and Monsters
“A book I never really thought I would read, as I don't care for
horror; I flew through the pages. This is one of the most
intriguing histories of war and how its influence has reached into
every aspect of our lives to this day. I simply could not put this
book down!”
—Shannon Alden, Literati Bookstore (Ann Arbor, MI)
“This is a book that might appear to be geared toward fans of
horror, but anyone interested in history or cultural studies will
find Poole's thorough analysis fascinating.”
—Dave Lucey, Page 158 Books (Wake Forest, NC)
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