Picked up this book for a buck at Dollar General yesterday. Description from Amazon:

In American Panic , New York Times bestselling author Mark Stein traces the history and consequences of American political panics through the years. Virtually every American, on one level or another, falls victim to the hype, intensity, and propaganda that accompanies political panic, regardless of their own personal affiliations. By highlighting the similarities between American political panics from the Salem witch hunt to present-day vehemence over issues such as Latino immigration, gay marriage, and the construction of mosques, Stein closely examines just what it is that causes us as a nation to overreact in the face of widespread and potentially profound change. This book also devotes chapters to African Americans, Native Americans, Catholics, Mormons, Jews, Chinese and Japanese peoples, Communists, Capitalists, women, and a highly turbulent but largely forgotten panic over Freemasons. Striking similarities in these diverse episodes are revealed in primary documents Stein has unearthed, in which statements from the past could easily be mistaken for statements today. As these similarities come to light, Stein reveals why some people become panicked over particular issues when others do not.

I have finally given up on this book. It has a great premise that, in the hands of another author, might have been fascinating. As it is, although it does include some fairly interesting information, I found it dry and repetitive. I had hoped for more!

I have offered this as a bookray and have the following participants so far:

Aramena (US - prefers US shipping but can do other)
Lizzy-Stardust (UK)
Billbooks (Australia)

I hope you guys enjoy this more than I did - sorry to foist off one that I didn't love but I did promise it! Will PM Aramena shortly for an address.

Sent via media mail today.

Just picked up Saturday's mail and the book has arrived. Will start it soon!

Five chapters in (84 pages), I finally admitted to myself that this book was boring me to pieces. I was still interested to read about the women, so flipped ahead to the chapter, " Woman Suffrage", but one page in that interest faded.

There are parts of the book where the author talks about specific people, and the events that happened to and around them, and those parts kept my interest. But the rest of the book, like glade1 said, dry and repetitive. (I'm actually sick of seeing the word "panic".)

An ambitious project, that in the hands of someone like Mary Roach or Barbara Ehrenreich, could have been fascinating.

I already have Lizzy-Stardust's address, so will get this mailed out to her after the weekend.

Thanks for sharing this book, glade1. I buy lots of books at Dollar General, but I guess for some of those books there's a reason they're being sold off for a dollar!

Mailed to Lizzy-stardust.

Thanks for posting this! I received it yesterday and should be able to make a start on it next week!

This book was so poorly and pedantically written that I couldn't even finish it. Tedious and repetitive, it provided no new insights and the only thing I learned from it was that Gypsy Rose Lee was a communist...or was it a suspected communist?

Oh dear the reviews aren't great but let's see if I can find more to it

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