Confessional Crises and Cultural Politics in Twentieth-Century America

Dave Tell is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas.

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Confessional Crises and Cultural Politics1Confession and Sexuality: True Story Versus Anthony Comstock2Confession and Class: A New True Story3Confession and Race: Civil Rights, Segregation, and the Murder of Emmett Till4Confession and Violence: William Styron’s Nat Turner5Confession and Religion: Jimmy Swaggart’s Secular Confession6Confession and Democracy: Clinton, Starr, and the Witch-Hunt Tradition of American Confession Conclusion: James Frey and Twenty-First-Century Confessional CultureNotesBibliographyIndex

“Tell’s Confessional Crises and Cultural Politics in Twentieth-Century America provides a critical and fascinating account of the always already ‘confessional anxiety’ that animates American public life and political culture.”—Corey D. B. Walker Journal of American History