And On This Day A Book Is Born

United States of Paranoia roundup.

Today is the official release date for my book The United States of Paranoia, which means you can now peek inside it at Amazon. In related news:

* A lengthy excerpt from the book appears in Salon today. Here is an, um, excerpt from the excerpt:

When George W. Bush was president, the group most frequently invoked as a symbol of political paranoia was the 9/11 truth movement, nicknamed the truthers, who believed that a cabal within the U.S. government had either organized the 9/11 attacks or deliberately refrained from preventing them. But the truthers were ultimately a side attraction. The most prevalent form of paranoia after 9/11 was the mindset that allowed officials to mistake a harmless school project for a jihad. Americans were on edge, waiting for the next deadly attack. And in a change from the Cold War, when we at least knew the form such an attack would take, all sorts of activities or objects could be construed as a threat.

It was the same species of fear that had flared during earlier hunts for spies and saboteurs. But now the consequences of failing to spot the conspirators seemed much more catastrophic. Anything might be a weapon; anything might be a clue.

* The Washington Post did a video interview with me about the book. You can watch it here.

* National Review did an audio interview with me about the book. You can listen to it here.

* The Sandusky Register did a print interview with me about the book. You can read it here.

* Chip Berlet, Lance deHaven-Smith, and I debated political paranoia on Al Jazeera this afternoon. I don't think that show can be viewed within the U.S., but international Reasoners can try their luck here.

* The New York Daily News reviewed the book, and so did a blog called the Reading Glutton.

* If you live in the D.C. area and the above links haven't made you completely sick of the sight of me, you can come see me read at Politics & Prose tonight. If you don't live anywhere near D.C. but are still curious to watch the show, it will be streamed on C-Span's BookTV website. C-Span 2 will air it on cable this weekend.