Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved Into a Culture of Fans and Followers
Landon Jones
(Author)
Description
A former People magazine editor reveals how our cult of celebrity has shaped our politics, our culture, and our personal lives--for better or worse From the writer and editor who coined the term "baby boomer" comes Celebrity Nation, an exploration into how and why fame no longer stems only from heroic achievements but from the number of "likes" and shares--and what this change means for American culture. Landon Jones--who spent decades in "celebrityland" only to emerge, like Alice, blinking in the sunlight--brings a personal and first-person perspective on fame and its dark underbelly, complicated even further by the arrival of the internet and social media. Jones draws on his experience as the former managing editor of People magazine to bolster his account with profiles of celebrities he knew personally, ranging from Malcolm X to Princess Diana, as well as observations about contemporary social media stars like Kim Kardashian and computer-generated macro-influencer Miquela, a self-proclaimed "19-year-old Robot living in LA." In analyzing the stories of over 75 celebrities, spanning decades and industries, Jones shows how celebrity has been wielded as a weapon of mass distraction to spawn narcissism, harm, and loneliness. And yet, in these stories we also see a path forward. Jones highlights luminaries like Nobel Peace prize winner Maria Ressa and lauded environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who have effected meaningful change not by glorifying themselves but by turning to their communities for action. A lively analysis of celebrity culture's impact on nearly every facet of our lives, Celebrity Nation helps us to recognize how the apparatus of fame operates.Product Details
Price
$26.95
$25.06
Publisher
Beacon Press
Publish Date
May 09, 2023
Pages
216
Dimensions
0.0 X 0.0 X 0.0 inches | 1.25 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780807065655
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About the Author
Landon Y. (Lanny) Jones is an editor and author. He is the former managing editor of People and Money magazines and the author of William Clark and the Shaping of the West (2004), a biography of the co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Jones also edited a selection of the expedition journals, The Essential Lewis and Clark (2000). In 1980, he published Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation, which coined the phrase "baby-boomer" and was a finalist for the American Book Award in Nonfiction. In 2015, he received the Henry R. Luce Award for Lifetime Achievement from Time Inc. He is from St. Louis, Missouri, and currently resides in Princeton, New Jersey.
Reviews
"As one of the founding editors at People, Lanny Jones helped chronicle and invent the rise of celebrity culture. In this fun and insightful book, he explores the difference between celebrities and heroes, a distinction that is more important than ever in our age of Kardashians and Trumps."
--Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs "As the editor of People magazine during its early glory days, Landon Jones was present at the creation of the Celebrity Nation. He brings a sharp eye and deep understanding--as well as warmth and humor--to exploring a phenomenon that once seemed like an entertaining diversion but now threatens to consume us all."
--Evan Thomas, author of First: Sandra Day O'Connor and Being Nixon "Celebrity Nation is an irresistibly readable history and critique of our vertiginous celebrity culture, written by none other than Landon Jones, former head editor of People, who knows this rocky terrain firsthand. It is witty, illuminating, filled with facts, entertaining but also disturbing, fully living up to its ambitious subtitle: 'How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers.' Whatever the latest curve is, Landon Jones seems to be ahead of it."
--Joyce Carol Oates, author of Blonde "The final arbiter of all matters celebrity in America."
--former columnist Frank Rich, New York Times "As a former editor of People magazine, Landon Jones is an expert on the rise of celebrity culture in this country and its troubling social costs. His mesmerizing book, revealing in unsettling detail how America's addiction to celebrity has heightened its political and class divisions and weakened community and family ties, is a must-read."
--Lynne Olson, author of Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt's Ancient Temples from Destruction
--Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs "As the editor of People magazine during its early glory days, Landon Jones was present at the creation of the Celebrity Nation. He brings a sharp eye and deep understanding--as well as warmth and humor--to exploring a phenomenon that once seemed like an entertaining diversion but now threatens to consume us all."
--Evan Thomas, author of First: Sandra Day O'Connor and Being Nixon "Celebrity Nation is an irresistibly readable history and critique of our vertiginous celebrity culture, written by none other than Landon Jones, former head editor of People, who knows this rocky terrain firsthand. It is witty, illuminating, filled with facts, entertaining but also disturbing, fully living up to its ambitious subtitle: 'How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers.' Whatever the latest curve is, Landon Jones seems to be ahead of it."
--Joyce Carol Oates, author of Blonde "The final arbiter of all matters celebrity in America."
--former columnist Frank Rich, New York Times "As a former editor of People magazine, Landon Jones is an expert on the rise of celebrity culture in this country and its troubling social costs. His mesmerizing book, revealing in unsettling detail how America's addiction to celebrity has heightened its political and class divisions and weakened community and family ties, is a must-read."
--Lynne Olson, author of Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt's Ancient Temples from Destruction
