American Apocalyptic: Beliefs, Rituals, and Expressions of Doomsday Culture in the US [Hardcover]

In this book, Juli Gittinger argues that Americas fascination (obsession?) with the apocalypse is a synthesis of religion, popular culture, and politics in a way that is particular to the US and consonant with mythological-historical narratives of America. As a result, we can identify American apocalypticism as a sort of religion in itself that is closely tied to civil religion, that has a worldview and rituals that create identifiable communities and connects American mythology to apocalyptic anxieties. Gittinger discusses how various cultures and groups form as a result of this obsession, and that these communities form their own rituals and responses in various forms of prepping or survivalist practices.  She lays out an argument for a broad eschatology prevalent in the US that extends beyond traditional religious designations to form an apocalyptic worldview that is built into our narrative as a country, as well as furthered by popular culture and medias contributionto apocalyptic anxieties. Subsequently, Gittinger uses case studies of apocalyptic eventscurrent or speculativethat reveal how our anxieties about the end of the world (as we know it) inform our culture, as well as religious narratives that emerge from such crises.

1. Introduction.- Section 1. TEOTWAWKI.- 2. Cultural narratives of the apocalypse.- 3. Prepping as an American phenomenon. 4. Liberal Preppers.- Section 2. American Anxieties.- 5. Pandemic as apocalyptic event.- 6. Hoping for civil war: the Boogaloo movement.- 7. Climate apocalypse and Eco-piety.- 8. Conclusion.

Juli Gittinger is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Georgia College, USA.