In The Shape of Things to Come, Greil Marcus untangles the story of Americas covenant with itself - the idealism, horror, eloquence and violence integral to its founding narratives. In a thrilling account that moves back and forth between culture and politics, and with deep dives into the work of a few artists who strikingly dramatise the challenge America poses to each of its citizens - Herman Melville and Raymond Chandler, Philip Roth and David Lynch, Bill Pullman and Sheryl Lee, David Thomas of Pere Ubu and Allen Ginsberg - Marcus captures a story that is constantly being remade and retold, in voices at once paranoid and sardonic, inspiring and terrifying.