Drama, Politics, and Evolution

Since retiring from the University of Pittsburgh, Bruce McConachie has published Theatre Histories: An Introduction (3rd edn) with three co-authors and The Routledge Companion to Theatre, Performance and Cognitive Science, co-authored with Rick Kemp. Previous single-authored books include: Melodramatic Formations: American Theatre and Society, 1820-1870 (1992), American Theatre in the Culture of the Cold War (2003), Engaging Audiences: A Cognitive Approach to Spectating in the Theatre (2008), Theatre and Mind (2013), and Evolution, Cognition, and Performance (2015). A past President of the American Society for Theatre Research, he also continues to serve as an editor and reader for several academic publishers.

Chapter 1: Genes, Culture and History in Coevolution.- Chapter 2: Cultural Performatives in History.- Chapter 3: Coevolution in the Pleistocene.- Chapter 4: Destructive Creation in World History.- Chapter 5: Post-war Hegemony and the Reagan Reversal, 1945-1985.- Chapter 6: Neoliberalism and Political Realignment, 1980-2015.- Chapter 7: The Better Angels of Our Nature or the Age of Trump, 2000-2020.