I shall check out the Peircy book. An early GF of mine from Wesleyan was doing her year out at Imperial and forced me to read Atwood's Handmaid's Tale. (I have a first.) I scoffed at the absurdity of it all; given that it was 1982, and the GF in question had right-wing, gun-friendly, and libertarian leanings. But it did give me an early insight in the complexities of the American national psyche.

BTW the ex GF is now a professor somewhere in the vast university network of the US. I hope her political opinions have become more nuanced with time; and I hope she imparts any gentling wisdom to her protégées too.