Kurt Andersen's upcoming book, Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire, A 500-Year History seeks to answer a provocative question: When did the United States of America become untethered from reality?
Andersen, host of the Peabody Award-winning public radio program Studio 360, wants readers to know he's been working on the book for some time.
"One of the reasons I'm working very fast now to get it out quickly is because I don't want people to think, 'Oh! He saw this [President] Trump thing happen and he wrote a book.' No it is this 500-year history," Andersen said.
Andersen argues there's something about our American character that's made us as a nation susceptible to what he describes as "make believe and wishful fantasy."
"The people who started America were, as historians have said but I really think it's true, believers of the impossible," Andersen said.
He argues that with the arrival of the internet, the balance between reality and perception has become out of balance.
"The American tendency toward magical thinking and 'whatever I believe is true,' and 'I'm not only entitled to my own opinions but my own facts,' has gotten out of control," he said.
Donald Trump's presidency is therefore a natural outcome.
"He is the exhibit A that has suddenly appeared and barged into my book as I was finishing it," he said.
Fantasyland: How American Went Haywire, A 500-Year History comes out September 5 from Random House.
Kurt Andersen hosts Studio 360, which is heard Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. on 90.3. Andersen was in town earlier this year for a speaking engagement at the Cleveland Institute of Art.
Watch the entire interview below:
Originally recorded 2/16/2017
