Difficult Reputations – Collective Memories of the Evil, Inept & Controversial: Collective Memories of the Evil, Inept, and Controversial (Heritage of Sociology) - Hardcover

Fine, Alan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226249409 ISBN 13: 9780226249407

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2001

Synopsis

We take reputations for granted. Believing in the bad and the good natures of our notorious or illustrious forebears is part of our shared national heritage. Yet we are largely ignorant of how such reputations came to be, who was instrumental in creating them, and why. Even less have we considered how villains, just as much as heroes, have helped our society define its values. Presenting essays on America's most reviled traitor, its worst president, and its most controversial literary ingenue (Benedict Arnold, Warren G. Harding, and Lolita), among others, sociologist Gary Alan Fine analyzes negative, contested, and subcultural reputations. This volume offers eight compelling historical case studies as well as a theoretical introduction situating the complex roles in culture and history that negative reputations play. Arguing the need for understanding real conditions that lead to proposed interpretations, as well as how reputations are given meaning over time, this book marks an important contribution to the sociologies of culture and knowledge.

About this title

About the Author:

Gary Fine is a professor of sociology at Northwestern University. His many books include "Manufacturing Tales: Sex and Money in Contemporary Legends" and "With the Boys: Little League Baseball and Preadolescent Culture."

From the Inside Flap:

We take reputations for granted. Believing in the bad and the good natures of our notorious or illustrious forebears is part of our shared national heritage. Yet we are largely ignorant of how such reputations came to be, who was instrumental in creating them, and why. Even less have we considered how villains, just as much as heroes, have helped our society define its values. Presenting essays on Fatty Arbuckle, Herman Melville, Benedict Arnold, Warren Harding, John Brown, Sinclair Lewis, Henry Ford, and Vladimir Nabokov, Gary Fine explores the complex roles in culture and history that difficult reputations play.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0226249409
• ISBN 13: 9780226249407
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280