Difficult reputations

University of Chicago Press

2001

267 pages

9780226249407

Benedict Arnold and the commemoration of treason -Warren Harding and the memory of incompetence -John Brown and the legitimation of political violence -Fatty Arbuckle and the creation of public attention -Henry Ford and the multiple-audience problem -Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, and the creation of imaginary social relations -Herman Melville and the demise of literary reputation -Sinclair Lewis, Main Street, and community reputation.

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 ingénue (Benedict Arnold, Warren G. Harding, and Lolita), among others, the author analyzes negative, contested, and subcultural reputations offering eight case studies as well as a theoretical introduction situating the complex roles in culture and history that negative reputations play

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