Books

Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy

“…a vivid and intriguing recontextualization of a misunderstood aspect of American history.” –Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

“In an engrossing narrative, Dickey explains how the human search for purpose can become comical, weird, and/or dark.” –Kirkus

The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained

“Fascinating, troubling, compassionate and—in the end—deeply thoughtful…Dickey’s sense of history reminds us of the complex reasons our odder beliefs endure.” –The New York Times Book Review

“With a wry tone and incisive analysis, Dickey explores how these stories have developed alongside the country through scientific innovations, evolving frontiers, changing ideas about race, and more. Readers will find this to be a thought-provoking and deliciously unsettling guide into the stranger corners of American culture.” –Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places

One of NPR’s Great Reads of 2016“A lively assemblage and smart analysis of dozens of haunting stories…absorbing…[and] intellectually intriguing.” –The New York Times Book Review

Afterlives of the Saints: Stories from the Ends of Faith

“An unusual and quite fascinating collection of tales.”  –Booklist

Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius

“Dickey spins these stories with a storyteller’s grace and a historian’s exactitude. Cranioklepty will join those books for popular audiences that delve into the origins of eccentric intellectual lore, whether madness and lexicography (see: The Professor and the Madman) or inventions and visions by depressives, maniacs, and malcontents. Human endeavor is forever inclined to oddity, and with this book, Colin Dickey provides a delightful illumination of one intriguing example of our quixotic pursuits.” -The Brooklyn Rail