Jumping at Shadows: The Triumph of Fear and the End of the American Dream

by Sasha Abramsky

Overview

Why is an unarmed young black woman who knocks on a stranger's front door to ask for help after her car breaks down perceived to be so threatening that he shoots her dead? Why do we fear infrequent acts of terrorism more far more common acts of violence? Why does a disease like Ebola, which killed only a handful of Americans, provoke panic, whereas the flu—which kills tens of thousands each year—is dismissed with a yawn?

Jumping at Shadows is Sasha Abramsky's searing account of America's most dangerous epidemic: irrational fear. Taking readers on a dramatic journey through a divided nation, where everything from immigration to disease, gun control to health care has become fodder for fearmongers and conspiracists, he delivers an eye-popping analysis of our misconceptions about risk and threats. What emerges is a shocking portrait of a political and cultural landscape that is, increasingly, defined by our worst fears and rampant anxieties.

Ultimately, Abramsky shows that how we calculate risk and deal with fear can teach us a great deal about ourselves, exposing deeply ingrained strains of racism, classism, and xenophobia within our culture, as well as our growing susceptibility to the toxic messages of demagogues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568585192
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	911,491
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Sasha Abramsky is an author, freelance journalist, lecturer at the University of California, and a senior fellow at Demos. His work has appeared in the Nation, Atlantic Monthly, New York magazine, American Prospect, Salon, Slate, NewYorker.com, LA Weekly, Village Voice, Daily Beast, and Rolling Stone.

His 2013 book, The American Way of Poverty, was listed as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and his 2015 volume, The House of Twenty Thousand Books, was selected by Kirkus as one of the best nonfiction books of the year. Abramsky lives in Sacramento, California, with his wife and their two children.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/03/2017
In this pensive exploration of the American culture of fear, Abramsky (The House of 20,000 Books) identifies a variety of personal and societal ills, including widespread anxiety disorders, overstuffed prisons, income inequality, and Islamophobia, as “symptoms of a social system in deep crisis.” In eloquent and devastating terms, Abramsky shows, over and over, how fear hijacks rational decision making, empathy, and rational analysis, and instead plays on implicit bias and gut response. Yet the human brain is enormously prone to miscalculating risk, influenced, as Abramsky demonstrates, less often by statistics than by sensationalist news cycles or single, horrific acts. Modern American phenomena such as endemic gun violence and lockdown drills at elementary schools derive, Abramsky argues, from rising paranoia and a constant feeling of high alert, stressing our brains and our social psyche into following leaders who present a show of force at the cost of our privacy and dignity. It takes a strong stomach to handle all the stressors Abramsky investigates—the stories range from Kafkaesque absurdity to nauseating cruelty—but his mild tone and deep compassion ultimately guide the reader to the only rational response: resist inflammatory rhetoric and recover a “healthier way of living, a calmer, less vengeful notion of community.” Agent: Victoria Skurnick, Levine Greenberg Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"A provocative look at the science and psychology behind fear-based politics.... Abramsky presents a clearly written synthesis of science and sociology. A thoughtful progressive feint against the vulgar fearmongering of the moment."—Kirkus Reviews

"In this fascinating examination of fear, journalist Abramsky (The American Way of Poverty) reveals how it has infected the collective American psyche, influencing everything from child rearing to government. ...Readers interested in groupthink, sociology, or seeking insight into the current state of American politics will devour this book."—Library Journal

From the Publisher

05/15/2017
In this fascinating examination of fear, journalist Abramsky (The American Way of Poverty) reveals how it has infected the collective American psyche, influencing everything from child rearing to government. In the wake of one of the most tumultuous presidential elections in U.S. history, Abramsky outlines how the Donald Trump campaign used the many faces of fear to attract their electorate. Politicians aren't the only ones exploiting people's anxieties; Abramsky also looks at the rise of antianxiety and antidepressant medication use and the increase in police brutality, especially against unarmed black men such as Floyd Dent, whose murder is chronicled here in gut-wrenching detail. Yet, says the author, automobiles kill far more people than violent crime, and most Americans drive without concern every day. So why this disconnect? Abramsky expands on Barry Glassner's The Culture of Fear, which argues that people are afraid of things that are statistically unlikely to cause them harm, suggesting this notion has moved from the fringes to the mainstream since President Trump took office. VERDICT Readers interested in groupthink, sociology, or seeking insight into the current state of American politics will devour this book.—Venessa Hughes, Buffalo, NY

Library Journal

2017-06-12
A provocative look at the science and psychology behind fear-based politics.Demos senior fellow Abramsky's (The House of Twenty Thousand Books, 2015, etc.) argument feels simultaneously complex and familiar: constant sensationalism via social media and selective journalism of the Fox News variety has overwhelmed rationality within society. "Our anxieties and terrors were being nurtured by people and institutions who stood to make a buck out of those fears," he writes. "In the campaign for the US presidency in 2016, those fears were nurtured as never before." This American tendency to make fundamental decisions "with worst-case-scenarios as a psychic backdrop" is creating a more oppressive society, particularly for the poor and people of color, while corporate or criminal interests may profit. In crisply organized chapters, the author links a particular fear-driven aspect of life, such as extreme firearm or "prepper" culture or obsessive "helicopter parenting," to the science behind brain chemistry and pattern recognition that may explain the ease of conditioning us to be fearful. He notes this occurred on a national level following 9/11, when citizens permitted the attackers' fanaticism "to dictate the terms of our policy discourse." Similarly, Abramsky is disturbed by Donald Trump's rhetorical embrace of torture, which he views as an attempt to make his supporters complicit in any such actions. While more benign, he draws connections to fear-based movements such as preppers or anti-vaccination parents as part of a broader trend against rational risk calculation: "It turns out that pretty bizarre understandings of risk and fear are the norm rather than the exception." The author argues that neurologists are using MRIs to understand how "simple presentiments of risk" have left us vulnerable to the manipulations of bigots. Though his argument can seem broad or overly tailored to current trends, Abramsky presents a clearly written synthesis of science and sociology. A thoughtful progressive feint against the vulgar fearmongering of the moment.

Kirkus Reviews