"From ancient times to the modern world, the idea of the Faustian bargain--the exchange of one's soul in return for untold riches and power--has exerted a magnetic pull upon our collective imaginations. Scholar Ed Simon takes us on a historical tour of the Faustian bargain, from the Bible to blues, and illustrates how the impulse to sacrifice our principles in exchange for power is present in all kinds of social ills, from colonialism to nuclear warfare, from social media to climate change to AI, and beyond. In doing so, Simon conveys just how much the Faustian bargain shows us about power and evil ... and ourselves."--

Appointment at Deptford -- Simon Magus: Arch-Heretic, Supreme Necromancer -- Christ in the Desert: Two Millennia of Lent -- Of Saints and Succubi: Medieval Diabolical Contracts -- Great Reckonings, Small Rooms: Searching for the Historical Faust -- A Devil Too Many: Kit Marlowe and the Conjuring of Dr. Faust -- Going Upstairs, Coming Downstairs: On Witches' Sabbaths and Black Masses -- Faust Is an Artist: Christoph Haizmann and the Internal Painting -- A Romantic Hell: Goethe Saves Faust -- Melodies of Damnation: Faust Is a Musician and Composer -- Mephistopheles Is American: Faustian Contracts in the United States -- Darkest of Arts: Totalitarianism in the Faustian Century -- Mephistopheles in Hollywood: The Faustian Desires of Entertainment -- Destroyer of Worlds: Condemned to Apocalypse in the Faustocene