Character Assassination Across the Ages

Martijn Icks is a Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is the author of The Crimes of Elagabalus: The Life and Legacy of Rome’s Decadent Boy Emperor (2011). Additionally, he has co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Character Assassination and Reputation Management (2020) and co-authored Character Assassination and Reputation Management (2022), also published by Routledge.Eric Shiraev is a professor and researcher at George Mason University, USA. His multi-disciplinary approach emphasizes the role of culture and identity in social behavior and politics. He is the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Character Assassination and Reputation Management (2020) and has co-authored Character Assassination and Reputation Management (Routledge, 2022) and Cross-Cultural Psychology (6th edition, Routledge, 2024).

• List of FiguresList of TablesPrefaceMartijn Icks and Eric ShiraevIntroductionMartijn Icks and Eric Shiraev1 Character Assassination: Bridging Psychology and HistoryEric ShiraevAncient Rome2 Character Attack and Invective Speech in the Roman Republic: Cicero as TargetHenriette van der Blom3 Reports about the ‘Sex Life’ of Early Roman Emperors: A Case of Character Assassination?Jan Meister4 Creating Tyrants in Ancient Rome: Character Assassination and Imperial InvestitureMartijn IcksReflections: Ancient RomeMartijn Icks and Eric ShiraevThe Middle Ages5 Falsifying the Prophet: Muhammad at the Hands of His Earliest Christian Biographers in the WestKenneth Baxter Wolf6 Louis of Orléans, Isabeau of Bavaria, and the Burgundian Propaganda Machine, 1392-1407Tracy Adams7 A Newcomer in Defamatory Propaganda: Youth (Late Fourteenth to Early Fifteenth Century)Gilles LecuppreReflections: Medieval CasesMartijn Icks and Eric Shiraev The Early Modern Age8 The Ass in the Seat of St. Peter: Defamation of the Pope in Early Lutheran FlugschriftenBobbi Dykema9 Odious and Vile Names: Political Character Assassination and Purging in the French RevolutionMette Harder10 “As Awkward and Deficient as His Wife Is Amiable and Accomplished”: The Character Assassination of the Dutch Statesman Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck (1761-1825)Edwina HagenReflections: Early Modern CasesMartijn Icks and Eric ShiraevThe Modern Age11 Character Attacks and American PresidentsEric Shiraev and Jason Smart12 The Gao-Rao Affair: A Case of Character Assassination in Chinese Politics in the 1950sZi Yang and Eric Shiraev13 Propaganda and Resistance: The Failed Character Assassination of Václav Havel in Communist MediaMartina Klicperová-Baker14 Women’s Libbers and Lesbians: Character Assassination in the Phyllis Schlafly ReportJennifer Keohane15 Political Cartoons as a Medium for Persuasive Attack: The Case of Governor Noem the Puppy KillerWilliam L. Benoit and Sergei A. SamoilenkoReflections: Modern CasesMartijn Icks and Eric Shiraev EpilogueMartijn Icks and Eric ShiraevIndex