Self-Exposure: Human-Interest Journalism and the Emergence of Celebrity in America, 1890-1940

Few features of contemporary American culture are as widely lamented as the public’s obsession with celebrity — and the trivializing effect this obsession has on what appears as news. Nevertheless, America’s “culture of celebrity” remains misunderstood, particularly when critics discuss its historical roots.

In this pathbreaking book, Charles Ponce de Leon provides a new interpretation of the emergence of celebrity. Focusing on the development of human-interest journalism about prominent pub...