Traces the sources of American culture's obsession with predicting and preparing for the apocalypse. Author Anthony Aveni explores why Americans take millennial claims seriously, where and how end-of-the-world predictions emerge, how they develop within a broader historical framework and what we can learn from doomsday predictions of the past. Original., "Aveni traces the sources of American culture's obsession with predicting the apocalypse. He explores why Americans take millennial claims seriously, where and how end-of-the-world predictions emerge, how they develop with reference to a broader historical trajectory, and what we can learn from doomsday predictions of the past"--