W. Scott Poole
Professor
Office Hours: Sabbatical, Fall 2023
Phone: 843.953.1420
E-mail: poolews@cofc.edu
W. Scott Poole teaches courses in American politics and popular culture. He is the author or co-author of nine books, including Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting(2011; revised edition 2018) that won the John Cawelti award for best textbook dealing with popular culture. He is a Bram Stoker Award nominee for his 2016 biography of H.P. Lovecraft, In the Mountains of Madness.
His most recent book is Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror (2018) looks at the lives of directors, artists, and writers who collectively created the culture of contemporary horror. Wasteland was chosen for “notable book” lists by The New York Post, The Toronto Free Star, and the Indie Booksellers“Indie Next” list.
Poole’s work has appeared in the Washington Post, PopMatters, Jacobin, and People’s World,as well as in academic essay collections including, most recently, The Oxford Handbook of Edgar Allan Poe (2019).
He tweets about horror and history @monstersamerica
Education
Ph.D. University of MississippiM.T.S. Harvard University
Research Interests
American pop and folk culture.
Courses Taught
Monsters in America
Horror: Narratives of Fear and Violence in American History
Radical Pop: Dissent and Politics in 20th Century Popular Culture
Survey courses (100-level) on the history of the Devil and Modernity
History 226: American Monsters
History 350: Horror and the Great War
History 350: Histories of Death: The Gothic and Social Revolution, 18thc. to the Present
Honors and Awards
Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting won the 2012 John W. Cawelti Award for the Best Textbook/Primer in popular and American Culture published in 2011.
Never Surrender: Confederate Memory and Conservatism in the South Carolina Upcountry won the George C. Rogers Award for Best Book in South Carolina History, 2004.
Teaching American History Grant
The 2010 Historical Inguiry Project with Horry County Social Studies Teachers.
Focus on Faculty
"The Confederate "Lost Cause" is Not Lost to Historian"
S.C. Book Festival 2009
Jack Bass and Scott Poole note the release of their publication The Palmetto State: The Making of Modern South Carolina.
Publications
Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror, Counterpoiint Press 2018.
In the Mountains of Madness: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of H.P. Lovecraft, Soft Skull Press 2016.
Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror, Soft Skull Press 2014.
Monsters in America:Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting, Baylor University Press 2011. Revised edition 2018.
Satan in America: The Devil We Know, Rowman & Littlefield Publisher in 2009.
The Palmetto State: The Making of Modern South Carolina, USC Press in 2009.
Never Surrender: Confederate Memory and Conservatism in the South Carolina Upcountry, UGA Press 2004. Never Surrender won the George C. Rogers Award for Best Book in South Carolina History, 2004.
South Carolina's Civil War, Mercer, 2005.
Co-editor of a collection of essays with Edward J. Blum entitled Vale of Tears: New Essays in Religion and Reconstruction, Mercer 2005.
