Description
Book SynopsisThe historical and cultural context of fame in the twenty-first century
Today, celebrity culture is an inescapable part of our media landscape and our everyday lives. This was not always the case. Over the past century, media technologies have increasingly expanded the production and proliferation of fame. Celebrity explores this revolution and its often under-estimated impact on American culture. Using numerous precedent-setting examples spanning more than one hundred years of media history, Douglas and McDonnell trace the dynamic relationship between celebrity and the technologies of mass communication that have shaped the nature of fame in the United States.
Revealing how televised music fanned a worldwide phenomenon called Beatlemania and how Kim Kardashian broke the internet, Douglas and McDonnell also show how the media has shaped both the lives of the famous and the nature of the spotlight itself. Celebrity examines the production, circulation,
Trade Review
Douglas and McDonnell focus … on technological change in the United States and its implications for celebrity culture ... highlights a transformation that has only intensified in the era of twenty-four-hour cable and Twitter. -- New York Review of Books
An indispensable resource for understanding the deep connections between celebrities, the media, the public and the celebrity production industry. Douglas and McDonnell offer an expert guide to the current moment of heightened media visibility and celebrity accessibility, reminding us of the crucial history of celebrity and fame. -- Sarah Banet-Weiser, author of Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny
From Alexander the Great to Donald Trump, from Clara Bow to Kim Kardashian, fame has been an odd mix of products, personalities, pleasures, and politics. Carefully attuned to the impact of technologies and media, and to the interplay between celebrity industries and their audiences, Celebrity offers a detailed history of fame that is smart, rich, complex, current, and fun. -- Joshua Gamson, author of Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America
There is no more perfect timing for this brilliant examination of celebrity as the primary currency of public life than in the era of a reality show president! -- Jeffrey P. Jones, Executive Director, Peabody Awards
