American Political Fictions

Peter Swirski is a Canadian scholar and literary critic featured in Canadian Who's Who. Specialist in American literature and American Studies, and Amazon's #1 Bestseller in Canadian Literary Criticism and American Literary Criticism, he is the author of fifteen award-winning books, including From Lowbrow to Nobrow (2005), Ars Americana, Ars Politica (2010), and American Utopia and Social Engineering (2011).

• Introduction: Artists and Con-Artists 1. A Picture is Worth a Hundred Thousand Words: Joseph Heller, Picture this 2. No Child Left Behind: Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days 3. A Planet for the Taking: Alistair Beaton, A Planet for the President 4. (R)hyming (A)merican (P)oetry: various artists 5. The Left Wing: Aaron Sorkin, Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr., Eli Attie, et al., The West Wing

"With characteristic verve and inventiveness, the prolific Professor Swirski analyzes popular art and literature taking aim at politics-as-usual. From rap to The West Wing, Joseph Heller to the Left Behind franchise, Swirski's deft critiques give fresh guidance for understanding and perhaps undoing the systemic inequities in our American dreams." - John Howard, Professor of American Studies, King's College London, UK "By juxtaposing the fictions that come from our politicians with fictions that come from a wide range of popular and partisan artists, Peter Swirski proves that you cannot understand 'America' without a deep understanding of its political fictions. Swirski's combination of wicked wit and spectacular knowledge make this a dangerously fun book. And his familiarity with history, music, and metrics makes the chapter on rap alone worth the price of admission." - H. Bruce Franklin, John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies, Rutgers University, USA and author of Vietnam and Other American Fantasies "Peter Swirski has stepped up to the plate and smacked another ball over the centerfield fence. American Political Fictions: War on Errorism in Contemporary American Literature, Culture, and Politics is social and cultural criticism at its best. The book is original, insightful, unforgettable, and almost impossible to put down. I highly recommend it." - Robert W. McChesney, Professor of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA "This brilliant, passionate, and thought-provoking book deals with the fantastic and unrealistic notions Americans had, and many still have, about themselves and their possibilities - as reflected in their political fictions and in other forms of popular culture. If you ever wondered about what happened to the 'American Dream,' Peter Swirski supplies the answer." - Arthur Asa Berger, Professor Emeritus of Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts, San Francisco State University, USA "Peter Swirski shows his skills of a literary scholar while also taking on politics, history, and cultural (American) studies. He has done meticulous research and shows very wide reading. It is rare to find a book that can appeal to both the scholar and the general public, but this is what American Political Fictions achieves." - Mark Shackleton, University of Lecturer of English Philology, University of Helsinki, Finland "One of the many remarkable things about this literary and political study is that it does not limit itself to identifying the myths underlying contemporary American politics and filleting them with verve, wit, and humor. ... [A] must-read of the year...[Swirski] spells out the potential solution to some of the political woes beginning notably with political apathy which plague the United States and many other Western democracies...[R]ecounted with the aplomb of a journalist tempered by the research habits of a historian." - The Montreal Review