Vampires and the Making of the United States in the Twenty-First Century offers a unique and multifaceted study of how vampires on screen have shaped America and how specific environments here have shaped their vampires.

Examining the figure of the vampire within the framework of uniquely American environments — both physical and immaterial — the book delves into the questions relating to American geography, identity, racial and ethnic tensions, American colonial past and its urban and environmental history. With contributions from a diverse and international team of authors, the collection follows the vampire across the geographical and ideological landscape of the US to consider what cultural and historical environments have gone towards creating the contemporary undead and why the post-Trump America of the twenty-first century is a truly vampiric one.

This timely and truly innovative volume will resonate firmly with scholars and students of popular culture, film and media studies, horror, American studies and urban and environmental studies.

Simon Bacon is a writer and independent scholar based in Poznań, Poland. He has written and edited over thirty books on various subjects including Gothic: A Reader (2018), Horror: A Companion (2019), Eco-Vampires (2020), Nosferatu in the 21st Century (2023), The Evolution of Horror in the 21st Century (2023) and Future Folk Horror (2023).