Greg Jenner (1) (1982–)

Using the structure of an ordinary modern Saturday the author links ancient history with modern-day life. He careens rapidly back and forth from different eras- from Neolithic customs to Victorian developments to medieval life and yet does not spend more than one or two paragraphs linking them. This makes it a difficult read complicated by the author's "humor" and personal opinions peppered throughout the text. I quite like the structural idea but the author fails to carry it out.

read 8/19/2023… (more)

Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen, despite its subtitle, focuses mostly on the period between the early 18th century and the 1950s (and within that, largely people from the UK and US). Greg Jenner argues that celebrity as we think of it today first emerges in the early decades of the eighteenth century, enabled by various technological and societal factors, and that it's distinguished from fame or renown by its focus on the personality/private life of the celebrity and on the kind of economic infrastructure that grows up around them.

Jenner focuses mostly on thematic explorations of different aspects of celebrity, which means that he generally provides snippets of information about various historical figures rather than potted biographies (although he circles back to the same people a couple of times). This allows him to cover a broad array of weird, wonderful, and occasionally upsetting tales from the world of historical celebrity. Jenner accompanies these with a lot of patter and puns—often too many, for my taste, especially since he shades a bit into the Cheeky British Chappy Banter kind of shtick that's not to my taste, and it sits uneasily aside some occasionally rather clunky prose.

A fun, quick read that does better than most pop histories at conveying insights gleaned from academic studies to a popular audience, but not perhaps one that will linger with me.… (more)