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Colin Dickey

Colin Dickey is the author of The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters & Our Obsession with the Unexplained and Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places.

All Articles
August 9, 2024
Colin Dickey
Voters Have a Right to Know What Kevin Roberts’s Disturbing Book Says
J.D. Vance wrote the foreword to “Dawn’s Early Light.” The rest of the book outlines an even more troubling vision.
June 27, 2024
Colin Dickey
The Weaponization of Storytelling
The American public is more susceptible than ever to skewed narratives.
April 24, 2024
Colin Dickey
Lost in the Five Stages of Grief
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s “On Death and Dying” sparked a revolution in end-of-life care. But soon she began to deny mortality altogether.
October 23, 2023
MagazineColin Dickey
The Curse of the AR-15
How the gun became a cultural icon—and unmade America
May 3, 2023
Colin Dickey
Are Germs the Main Characters in History?
Outbreaks of disease may have had a greater effect on the course of events than the actions and plans of humans.
March 31, 2023
Colin Dickey
Wolfish Is a Deep Dive Into Fear
Erica Berry’s book dissects the cultural fascination with wolves as symbols of everything that terrifies us.
September 15, 2022
Colin Dickey
The Axios Guide to Writing Well Is Neither Smart Nor Brief
How much complexity is lost in a sentence no longer than six words?
March 21, 2022
Colin Dickey
The Weight of Family History
It’s never been easier to piece together a family tree. But what if it brings uncomfortable facts to light?
July 21, 2021
Colin Dickey
Edgar Allan Poe, Crank Scientist
The great discoveries of the age captivated his imagination. He almost always misunderstood them.
June 4, 2021
Colin Dickey
Malcolm Gladwell’s Fantasy of War From the Air
“The Bomber Mafia” enthuses about precision tactics said to spare civilian lives. Except they didn’t.
August 7, 2020
Colin Dickey
The Helpless Outrage of the Anti-Trump Book
The Trump era has birthed a distinct new genre of political writing: irate, forgettable, and strangely complacent.
July 11, 2019
Colin Dickey
The Secrets in Greenland’s Ice
From exploration to Cold War militarization, how the Arctic became the focus of the climate crisis.
April 24, 2019
Colin Dickey
America’s Messiah Complex
How cults feed on American ideals, aspirations, and hypocrisies.
April 11, 2019
Colin Dickey
Why Pet Sematary Refuses to Die
Stephen King’s story focuses on our culture’s obsessive denial of grief.
January 10, 2019
Colin Dickey
A Series of Selves
How Virginia Woolf’s diaries chronicle the push and pull of her private and public lives.
November 14, 2018
MagazineColin Dickey
Grand Old Paranoia
How Republican conspiracy theories have warped Washington
August 28, 2018
Colin Dickey
A Pioneer of Paranoia
How William Cooper envisioned a web entangling global capitalism, the government, and UFOs, and incubated the politics of conspiracy
March 22, 2018
Colin Dickey
Why Dictators Write
What Saddam Hussein’s romance novels and Kim Jong-il’s film criticism reveal about authoritarianism.
February 7, 2018
Colin Dickey
What Winchester Gets Wrong About an American Landmark
The new movie builds on the myth that when Sarah Winchester built her Mystery House, she was overwhelmed by grief.
September 21, 2017
Colin Dickey
When Squid Ruled the Earth
Prehistoric squid were far more numerous, and their reign lasted longer, than the dinosaurs. Why do we know so little about them?

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