Modern Apocalyptic Folklore (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781918712353)

Modern Apocalyptic Folklore examines the stories, rumours, beliefs and recurring narratives that emerge when societies imagine disaster, collapse and the end of the world.

From conspiracy theories and technological nightmares to pandemics, environmental catastrophe, war, social breakdown and predictions of civilisational collapse, the book explores how modern fears are transformed into folklore. It considers why certain stories spread rapidly, why some survive for decades, and why familiar patterns reappear whenever new technologies, political tensions or global crises create uncertainty.

Rather than treating apocalyptic stories simply as irrational beliefs, this book looks at them as cultural evidence. They can reveal anxieties about authority, science, technology, disease, environmental change, economic insecurity and the future itself. Modern communication has accelerated this process, allowing rumours, legends and speculative claims to travel instantly through social media, online communities, popular entertainment and news culture.

Drawing on folklore studies, popular culture and social analysis, Modern Apocalyptic Folklore considers how old themes are continually reshaped for new generations. Ancient fears of catastrophe now coexist with artificial intelligence, nuclear war, climate breakdown, pandemics, global surveillance, technological failure and imagined social collapse.

Accessible to general readers while offering a structured examination of contemporary belief, this book is for anyone interested in folklore, mythology, conspiracy culture, future studies, popular culture and the stories societies tell when the future appears uncertain.

Ultimately, Modern Apocalyptic Folklore is not simply a book about predictions of the end. It is an exploration of what those predictions reveal about the people and cultures that create, repeat and believe them.