A sweeping, interwoven story of how America fell in love with the Occult

Here’s to My Sweet Satan is the first book to fully document the Occult craze of the 1960s and 1970s as a single pop culture phenomenon that continues to influence nearly every aspect of culture today. A masterful cultural history, Here’s to My Sweet Satan tells how the Occult conquered the American imagination, weaving together topics as diverse as the birth of heavy metal, 1970s horror films, the New Age movement, Count Chocula cereal, the serial killer Son of Sam, and more. Cultural critic George Case explores how the Occult craze permanently changed American society, creating the cultural framework for the political power of the religious right, false accusations of Satanic child abuse, and today’s widespread rejection of science and rationality.

An insightful blend of pop culture and social history, Here’s to My Sweet Satan lucidly explains how the most technological society on earth became enthralled by the supernatural.

George Case is a writer on ideas and popular culture, and an acknowledged authority on the band Led Zeppelin. He is the author of “Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man,” “Out of Our Heads: Rock ‘n’ Roll Before the Drugs Wore Off,” “Led Zeppelin FAQ,” “Calling Dr. Strangelove,” and “Arcadia Borealis: Childhood and Youth in Northern Ontario.” Case has also contributed several articles to the social science journal Skeptic.

George Case's profile page

"Horns in the air! Case takes us to a veritable witches' sabbat of obsession with satanic themes in late twentieth century culture. His well-researched work encompasses everything from the growth of modern nihilistic philosophy to the 'horror gimmicks' of 1970s toys. Get ready to break out your Black Sabbath album, rewatch Rosemary's Baby and see contemporary culture in its darkest hues. You're in for a hell of a ride." —W. Scott Poole, historian and author of Satan in America and Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror

If you think belief in the occult and supernatural faded in the late 17th century after the murderous Salem Witch Trials, think again. America went through a second wave of paranormal beliefs in the late 20th century, resulting in disastrous moral panics over Satanic cults and recovered memories of sexual abuse. Beliefs have consequences and George Case has documented this period in exquisite detail and compelling prose, the best book I've read all year. —Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, author of Why People Believe Weird Things and The Moral Arc

"Fascinating ... well-researched and an excellent primer for anyone who's curious about the Occult's influence on pop culture." —Cheryl Eddy, io9.gizmodo.com

"Provides a comprehensive overview of America's fascination with the occult, with chapters devoted to its impact on music, literature, movies and more general pop culture ephemera, such as tarot readings, cryptozoology and yoga ... basically anything from the success of Stephen King to horror movies and comics fall under his umbrella." —Andrea Subissati, Rue Morgue

"Thoroughly researched ... well-written ... extremely pleasurable to read ... Here's to My Sweet Satan cuts deeply into the pop fascination with the occult with an unblinking stare and a very sharp knife." —Cemetery Dance

"A short but info-dense cultural study ... a lot of ground to cover yet Case somehow makes it look effortless: in just under 200 pages, he explores thought-provoking material in a manner that is intellectual yet brisk. The result is worth a read for horror fans or anyone else into cultish ephemera because it'll give you a new appreciation how all the oddball stuff in your media collection came to be." —Don Guarisco, Schlockmania!

"By now, I assumed that everything there was to be told about, say, The Exorcist, had been told long before. I was wrong. With Case's examination of ... artistic works that leveraged Christian America's fear of the unholy into big bucks, there's real heft to Here's to My Sweet Satan: factually, culturally, intellectually." —Rod Lott, Flick Attack/Bookgasm

"Here's to My Sweet Satan is not only a great book on the popular occult phenomenon of recent years, but it is my nomination for the best one. This is as close as we may get to a unified field theory as to why Western civilization went a little nuts over Count Chocula and Dark Shadows over the years 1966-1980. Case makes many profound observations on how this time period continues to influence the media today. Give this one a read. You won't be disappointed." —Rummah Kasai, The Secret Book Review

"Here's to My Sweet Satan makes for a fascinating sociopolitical study, but it's very readable and framed with anecdotal tidbits which, depending on your age, will either kindle a bit of nostalgia or surprise the reader. If you're looking for the origins of its influences on much of the world in which we live today, you don't have to look further than this thoughtful and fascinating book." —Charles de Lint, Fantasy & Science Fiction

"George Case has assembled, contextualized and made clear more disparate occult references and examples across multiple disciplines than has been proposed in any other book on the subject thus far. What's more, he brings back to the modern world the press reactions of the day, making for a lively read that takes us right back to the '60s and '70s. Case leaves no stone unturned, beginning with the Beatles and the Stones, but including less discussed examples of occultism and shock in rock from the likes of Graham Bond, Alice Cooper and the Blue Oyster Cult. All told, Here's to My Sweet Satan is a swift-moving read that re-conjures dozens — if not hundreds — of key story lines linking pop culture to the Satanic that you thought you knew, but now realize you never knew this richly." —Martin Popoff, author of Who Invented Heavy Metal and The Big Book of Hair Metal