The Passing of the American Century and the Cold Comfort of the Serial Killer

The rise of the serial killer was the dark side of the American twentieth century. Portrayals of serial killers today paradoxically evince a nostalgia for an age that was not as destructively nihilistic as our own.

The twentieth century saw the rise of America from a postcolonial rival to the British dominance of world capitalism to the undisputed global hegemon. It was decisively the American century. As the United States established economic dominance, it also exerted tremendous influence in the domain of culture across the globe. So it was that the twentieth ce…