I Wear the Black Hat, Chuck Klosterman
I Wear the Black Hat, Chuck Klosterman
2 Rating(s)
List: $23.95 | Sale: $16.77
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I Wear the Black Hat
Essays on Villains (Real and Imagined)

Author: Chuck Klosterman

Narrator: Chuck Klosterman

Unabridged: 7 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/09/2013


Synopsis

One-of-a-kind cultural critic and New York Times bestselling author Chuck Klosterman “offers up great facts, interesting cultural insights, and thought-provoking moral calculations in this look at our love affair with the anti-hero” (New York magazine).

Chuck Klosterman, “The Ethicist” for The New York Times Magazine, has walked into the darkness. In I Wear the Black Hat, he questions the modern understanding of villainy. When we classify someone as a bad person, what are we really saying, and why are we so obsessed with saying it? How does the culture of malevolence operate? What was so Machiavellian about Machiavelli? Why don’t we see Bernhard Goetz the same way we see Batman? Who is more worthy of our vitriol—Bill Clinton or Don Henley? What was O.J. Simpson’s second-worst decision? And why is Klosterman still haunted by some kid he knew for one week in 1985?

Masterfully blending cultural analysis with self-interrogation and imaginative hypotheticals, I Wear the Black Hat delivers perceptive observations on the complexity of the antihero (seemingly the only kind of hero America still creates). As the Los Angeles Times notes: “By underscoring the contradictory, often knee-jerk ways we encounter the heroes and villains of our culture, Klosterman illustrates the passionate but incomplete computations that have come to define American culture—and maybe even American morality.” I Wear the Black Hat is a rare example of serious criticism that’s instantly accessible and really, really funny.

About Chuck Klosterman

Chuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of many books of nonfiction (including The NinetiesSex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, I Wear the Black Hat, and But What If We're Wrong?) and fiction (Downtown Owl, The Visible Man, and Raised in Captivity). He has written for The New York TimesThe Washington PostGQEsquireSpinThe GuardianThe Believer, BillboardThe A.V. Club, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for The New York Times Magazine for three years, and was an original founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons. 


Reviews

Goodreads review by Shawn on July 08, 2016

Chuck's a lil' too far up his own asshole with this one. I've greatly enjoyed his previous non-fiction works, mostly because he hasn't tried to imbue his criticism of _pop_ ephemera with much in the way of greater meaning. It's pop culture, his books should be tasty little snacks that recall the spe......more

Goodreads review by Peter on August 25, 2013

I tried to buy this in a hip Chicago bookstore, and the clerk there was telling me that they were sold out. She then proceeded to explain to me that she didn't like Chuck Klosterman and why. I couldn't help but think what a weird move this was, explaining to me why she didn't like an author rather th......more

Goodreads review by Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) on June 11, 2024

I really enjoy Klosterman’s writing: he is incredibly smart, insightful and funny, and I really enjoyed this book. I find the topic fascinating. So why, might you ask, did it get 3 stars instead of 4 or 5? Well, the answer is both simple and kind of silly. I rated it lower because I read it at the w......more

Goodreads review by Kay on August 13, 2013

I am ordinarily a fan of Chuck Klosterman's but I didn't particularly care for this book. Honestly, in many ways it felt lazy. This is, I suppose, what happens when you're demanded to reproduce pretty much the exact same type of book over and over again. Often throughout the book, Klosterman jerks t......more

Goodreads review by Matthew on January 28, 2015

I'm a big Chuck Klosterman fan, from SPIN to many of his books on pop culture. He's started writing novels to (in my opinion) mixed success ... so I was glad when I saw that he's releasing a new book of essays. It comes out in July but I was able to get a galley copy, which I eagerly gobbled up over......more