Description
Book SynopsisCelebrities can come from many different realms: film, music, politics, sports. But what do all these major celebrities have in common? What elevates them to the status of household names while their equally talented peers remain in relative obscurity? Is it just a question of charisma, or does fame depend more on the collective fantasies of fans than the actual accomplishments of celebrities?
In search of answers, cultural historian Eric Burns delves deep into the biographies of some of the most famous figures in American history, from Benjamin Franklin to Fanny Kemble, Elvis Presley to Gene Tierney, and Michael Jordan to Oprah Winfrey. Through these case studies, he considers the evolution of celebrity throughout the ages. More controversially, he questions the very status of fame in the twenty-first century, an era in which thousands of minor celebrities have seen their fifteen minutes in the spotlight.
The Politics of Fame is a provocative and entertaining look at the lives and afterlives of America’s most beloved celebrities as well as the mad devotion they inspired. It raises important questions about what celebrity worship reveals about the worshippers—and about the state of the nation itself
Trade Review"Eric Burns's book provides a fascinating chronology of the politics of fame from the American founder fathers to the present day. The volume includes many interesting anecdotes upon this important topic." -- Mark Wheeler * London Metropolitan University and author of Celebrity Politics *
In this incendiary cultural commentary on the place of fame in politics, Burns’ links what he sees as a decline in educational standards with the “false intimacy” of celebrity. He describes a political environment in which the political classes pander to the “wisdom” of an electorate starved of genuine intelligence. Burns’ book will inspire and infuriate in equal measure, but as a warning against the influence of fame contemporary, it is unmissable. -- Michael Higgins * Senior Lecturer, Director of MLitt in Media and Communication at the University of Strathclyd *
Table of ContentsContents
Epigraph
A Note to Readers
Prologue
PART ONE
Chapter One: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Fame
Chapter Two: The Celebrity With A Cause
Chapter Three: The Cultural Commodity
Chapter Four: At Long Last, Class
Chapter Five: Circulation Wars
Chapter Six: The Press and the Immigrants
The Chapter Seven: The Deviancy of Adulation
Part TWO
Chapter One: The Decreasing Literacy Rate
Chapter Two: The Leveling Forces of Democracy
Chapter Three: The Declining Importance of Faith
Chapter Four: The Acceleration of Haste
Chapter Five: The False Intimacy of the Media
Epilogue
Bibliography
Notes
Index
