celebrity

Arctic Explorer, Nazi-Fighter, Iconoclast: Peter Freuchen's Case for "Most Interesting Man in the World"

by Reid Mitenbuler

A biographer contents that an unlikely celebrity from the early twentieth century should inspire people today to take risks and embrace a humanism that doesn't depend on loyalty to party or ideology. While this without-a-net kind of public discussion is increasingly rare today, it's what makes people interesting.

Texas State Prof. Launches Harry Styles History Course

Louis Dean Valencia realized during the pandemic that icebreaking conversations with students about pop music opened up many avenues for discussing historical subjects including the politics of celebrity. 

Britney Spears is Part of a Long History of Celebrity Religious Conversion (and Fan Skepticism)

by Rebecca L. Davis

The skepticism that has often accompanied public conversions by celebrities, from Sammy Davis, Jr. to Britney Spears, reflects prevalent assumptions about what religious experiences are authentic. 

Black Celebrities Have a Long History of Endorsing Republican Presidents

by Leah Wright-Rigeur

What may seem like a last-ditch effort to garner votes by the Trump campaign is in fact a well-worn political strategy designed to shield candidates from accusations of racism, while diverting attention away from individual candidates and their political administrations.

Malcolm X Warned Us about the Pitfalls of Black Celebrities as Leaders

by Kyle T. Mays

The media’s overemphasis on the voices of Black celebrities obscures the voices of ordinary Black people, whose lives are vastly different from those who have wealth and visibility.

How Baseball Players Became Celebrities

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, idols of the Golden Age of sports, brought stardom to America’s pastime.

The Weirdly Enduring Appeal of Weird Al Yankovic

National economies collapse; species go extinct; political movements rise and fizzle. But—somehow, for some reason—Weird Al endures.  

Babe Ruth's New York @ 100

by Jonathan Goldman

When Babe Ruth started hitting home runs, the US started to change.

George Packer: Celebrating Inequality

George Packer, a staff writer at The New Yorker, is the author, most recently, of “The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America.”THE Roaring ’20s was the decade when modern celebrity was invented in America. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Great Gatsby” is full of magazine spreads of tennis players and socialites, popular song lyrics, movie stars, paparazzi, gangsters and sports scandals — machine-made by technology, advertising and public relations. Gatsby, a mysterious bootlegger who makes a meteoric ascent from Midwestern obscurity to the palatial splendor of West Egg, exemplifies one part of the celebrity code: it’s inherently illicit. Fitzgerald intuited that, with the old restraining deities of the 19th century dead and his generation’s faith in man shaken by World War I, celebrities were the new household gods.