Reference Reviews

Doug's Student Reference Room

Celebrity Culture in the United States. Edited by Terence J. Fitzgerald. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 2008. 1 vol. 183 p. $50. ISBN 978-0-8242-1078-6.

In the opening essay of Celebrity Culture in the United States, Amy Henderson traces an evolutionary line from P.T. Barnum to the contestants on American Idol, illustrating an essential feature of celebrity culture. Americans once worshipped their heroes as a means of establishing a national character and identity, but in the mid-nineteenth century, Barnum created spectacles and celebrities out of not much more than sheer bravado. Americans moved from idolizing politicians and war heroes to worshipping athletes and entertainers, and ultimately, to admiring celebrities not for any aspect of their character, but simply for their ability to be famous. This collection is an insightful examination of America's fascination with celebrity. Twenty-four articles are divided into four sections: "The Cult of Celebrity" looks at the roots of American celebrity culture and its development. "Celebrity Activism and American Politics" looks at the intersection of celebrity and politics, providing historical examples including Mark Twain, Charles Lindbergh, and Ernest Hemingway, who took advantage of their fame to advance their political ideas, as well as more contemporary figures like Ronald Reagan, Jesse Ventura, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who parlayed their fame into political power. "The Price of Fame" documents the toll celebrities pay for the spotlight's glare and includes discussions of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Michael Jackson, Princess Diana and others. The final section, "The Democratization of Celebrity," describes the way technologies including television, the Internet, and the social networking of Web 2.0 have made a new kind of celebrity possible. A bibliography of books and periodical articles points readers to additional resources. This collection may lure teens through its reference to current celebrities, but once engaged, readers will find a provocative hook into deeper issues of American culture that reach far beyond Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Highly recommended for high school, public and academic libraries.

— Doug Achterman