Fantasyland summary

If one were to consider the Bible a fascinating tale of historical fiction, then you could look at the Book of Mormon as one of the greatest examples of Christian fan-fiction ever written.

But when the Book of Mormon first appeared it became the basis for a new religion called Mormonism.

When you think of the life of a slave, you probably don’t picture a happy-go-lucky person who has everything he needs. Yet, shockingly, this is the fantasy that plenty of Americans enjoyed, sometimes even decades after slavery had been outlawed.

Thirty years after the Civil War ended slavery, there were white Americans like Nate Salsbury, who entertained the fantasy that slavery hadn’t been all that bad for African-Americans.

In the 1960s and 1970s, massive cultural shifts were taking place in America. In 1962, the word “hippie” caught on as the sexual revolution got underway. The number of students going to college far surpassed those in previous generations, and recreational drug use was becoming commonplace on most campuses. Even professors at prestigious Harvard University were tripping, along with their students.

However, this new culture of freedom and experimentation meant that Americans were spending more time in drug-fuelled fantasies and less in reality.

Something strange happened to American culture during the 1980s and 1990s. At some point, most adults decided that growing up was optional.

More 30-year-olds were dressing up for Halloween, while fortysomethings were dancing next to teenagers at music festivals. For the baby-boomer generation, and every generation since, life became a perpetual adolescence.

One of the most dangerous American fantasies involves something the author has participated in many times: the use of guns. Andersen has only used guns to hunt turkey and other game but, increasingly, millions of Americans are buying guns for a different, rather delusional purpose.

We’ve seen a massive increase in the number of guns purchased in recent decades, while at the same time the legitimate reasons for owning all these weapons has significantly dwindled.