Coast to Coast AM - tinyurl.com American Monsters Date: 03-11-12 Host: Ian Punnett Guests: Scott Poole, Dr. Sky, Lynne D. Kitei MD Ian Punnett was joined by Professor of History, Scott Poole, for a discussion of how the monster, in all its various forms, has been a staple of American culture since the earliest settlers of the country. "Academics ought to take monsters seriously," Poole said, explaining that, regardless of the veracity of their existence, the belief in these entities "has real world effects in the material structures of society." To that end, he was reticent to provide "an abstract definition of a monster" because their identity and meaning have changed over time. "Monsters are products of the context that they come out of," he said, noting that, during different eras, monsters could be sea serpents, serial killers, or "the thing with a thousand eyes." Tracing this concept back to the very beginnings of America, Poole observed that the early Puritan settlers ! actually arrived in the New World expected monsters, which is what informed their perception of the Native Americans. He cited a long standing written history in Europe which suggested "monstrous races that were out beyond where the maps ended." As such, Poole said, when the settlers arrived in the New World, their intention was not to convert the Native Americans, but to eliminate the "monsters" which they so greatly feared. Beyond the Native Americans, he said, early settlers believed they were
... 
