Description
Book SynopsisThis work suggests that gossip has unexpected virtues. The contributors argue that gossip contributes to community cohesion and helps individuals better understand their own predicaments, problems and personal idiosyncrasies in the light of knowledge about the life experiences of others.
Trade ReviewGossip is inherently democratic, concerned with private life rather than public issues, 'idle,' in the sense that it is not instrumental or goal oriented. Yet it can serve to expand our consciousness of what life is about in ways that are effectively inaccessible to other modes of inquiry." —Ronald de Sousa from
Good Gossip"This topic is interesting and in need of serious study. The book is partially an attempt to exonerate gossip from its bad reputation by pointing to the various positive values it may promote. A worthy contribution to the study of gossip." —Irwin Goldstein, Davidson College