What's What in America

"What's What in America" by Eugene V. Brewster is a skeptical exploration of early 20th-century American culture, focusing on the era's fascination with unusual beliefs and practices. The book opens with a preface that acknowledges the nation's diverse population and Brewster's argument that social disarray is indicated by Americans' attraction to alternative beliefs, like phrenology. Brewster then begins his series of essays that take superstition and belief in the supernatural as their focus, arguing that they arise during a time when American identity is rapidly changing and Americans are on a quest to understand the world around them. The book, as a whole, explores the rise of health fads, pseudosciences, and other forms of credulity that took hold in the American consciousness at the turn of the century.