Character Assassination Across the Ages

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Revised and Expanded Edition with New Theory, Chapters, and Cases

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

3 379 kr

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Character assassination—the deliberate destruction of an individual’s reputation—has been a persistent feature of public life across time and cultures. This revised and expanded edition offers a comprehensive investigation into how reputations are attacked, damaged, and destroyed, with case studies ranging from ancient Rome to the present-day United States. Political and religious leaders, officials, celebrities, scientists, athletes, and other public figures emerge as frequent targets, with their private lives, values, and identities subjected to strategic scrutiny and distortion.Bringing together contributions from history, political science, and psychology, the volume highlights both the common patterns and the unique variations of character assassination as it has unfolded across different cultural, political, and technological contexts. The comparative case studies demonstrate how reputational attacks are not only timeless but also deeply shaped by the media and institutions of their era. This completely revised edition includes a newly written introduction situating the volume within recent theoretical developments in character assassination research. Two new chapters expand the thematic and chronological scope of the work.An essential resource for understanding the enduring and evolving power of reputational warfare, this book will be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience, including history, political science, and political psychology.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-06-17
Mått156 x 234 x undefined mm
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieStudies in Character Assassination and Reputation Protection
Antal sidor316
FörlagPallas Publications
ISBN9789048566044

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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