Celebrity Culture and the American Dream by Karen Sternheimer

Celebrity Culture and the American Dream by Karen Sternheimer

Celebrity Culture and the American Dream, Third Edition, considers how major economic and historical factors shaped the nature of celebrity culture as we know it today.

This third edition retains the previous edition’s examples from the first celebrity fan magazines of 1911 to the present while expanding to include updated examples and additional discussion on the role of the internet and social media in today’s celebrity culture. Equally important, the book explains how and why the story of Hollywood and social media celebrities matter, sociologically speaking, to an understanding of American society, to the changing nature of the American Dream, and to the relation between class and culture. This new edition is thoroughly updated and expanded in its coverage of social theory, social media, and key issues around race, class, gender, and sexuality in the manufacturing of celebrity and influence.

This book is an ideal addition to courses on inequalities, celebrity culture, media, and cultural studies.

Karen Sternheimer is a sociologist at the University of Southern California, where she is a distinguished fellow at the USC Center for Excellence in Teaching. She is also the author of Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture (Routledge, 2013), Pop Culture Panics (Routledge, 2015), and is the editor and lead writer for everydaysociologyblog.com. She has provided commentary for NPR, CNN, MSNBC, The History Channel, and Fox News.