Dystopian States of America is a crucial resource that studies the impact of dystopian works on American society-including ways in which they reflect our deep and persistent fears about environmental calamities, authoritarian governments, invasive technologies, and human weakness. Dystopian States of America provides students and researchers with an illuminating resource for understanding the impact and relevance of dystopian and apocalyptic works in contemporary American culture. Through its wide survey of dystopian works in numerous forms and genres, the book encourages readers to connect with these works of fiction and understand how the catastrophically grim or disquieting worlds they portray offer insights into our own current situation. In addition to providing more than 150 encyclopedia articles on a large and representative sample of dystopian/apocalyptic narratives in fiction, film, television, and video games (including popular works that often escape critical inquiry), Dystopian States of America features a suite of critical essays on five themes-war, pandemics, totalitarianism, environmental calamity, and technological overreach-that serve as the foundation for most dystopian worlds of the imagination. These offerings complement one another, enabling readers to explore dystopian conceptions of America and the world from multiple perspectives and vantage points. Provides readers with an accessible, well-organized, and thorough introduction to dystopian/apocalyptic narratives, with a focus on the ways that these stories foster increased awareness of the world we live in now Casts a wide net to identify dystopian works in diverse genres and forms-from classic novels to video games-reaching beyond "serious" literature to appreciate the depth of this body of work and its impact Covers a wide survey of works-more than 150-in digestible and accessible encyclopedia entries, each contributed by an established scholar in literary studies, film studies, history, or an associated field Provides five extended scholarly essays on recurring subject themes in apocalyptic and dystopian works

Tracing the "American Guerrilla" narrative through more than one hundred years of film and television, this book shows how the conventions and politics of this narrative influence Americans to see themselves as warriors, both on screen and in history. American guerrillas fight small-scale battles that, despite their implications for large-scale American victories, often go untold. This book evaluates those stories to illumine the ways in which film and television have created, reinforced, and circulated an "American Guerrilla" fantasy—a mythic narrative in which Americans, despite having the most powerful military in history, are presented as underdog resistance fighters against an overwhelming and superior occupying evil. Unconventional Warriors: The Fantasy of the American Resistance Fighter in Television and Film explains that this fantasy has occupied the center of numerous war films and in turn shaped the way in which Americans see those wars and themselves. Informed by the author's expertise on war in contemporary literature and popular culture, this book begins with an introduction that outlines the basics of the "American Guerrilla" narrative and identifies it as a recurring theme in American war films. Subsequent chapters cover one hundred years of American "guerrillas" in film and television. The book concludes with a chapter on science fiction narratives, illustrating how the conventions and politics of these stories shape even the representation of wholly fictional, imagined wars on screen.