“A disquieting, well-researched exploration of the celebrity phenomenon and its consequences for our society.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“As one of the founding editors at People, Lanny Jones helped chronicle and invent the rise of celebrity culture. In this fun and insightful book, he explores the difference between celebrities and heroes, a distinction that is more important than ever in our age of Kardashians and Trumps.”
—Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs
“As the editor of People magazine during its early glory days, Landon Jones was present at the creation of the Celebrity Nation. He brings a sharp eye and deep understanding—as well as warmth and humor—to exploring a phenomenon that once seemed like an entertaining diversion but now threatens to consume us all.”
—Evan Thomas, author of First: Sandra Day O’Connor and Being Nixon
“Celebrity Nation is an irresistibly readable history and critique of our vertiginous celebrity culture, written by none other than Landon Jones, former head editor of People, who knows this rocky terrain firsthand. It is witty, illuminating, filled with facts, entertaining but also disturbing, fully living up to its ambitious subtitle: ‘How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers.’ Whatever the latest curve is, Landon Jones seems to be ahead of it.”
—Joyce Carol Oates, author of Blonde
“The final arbiter of all matters celebrity in America.”
—former columnist Frank Rich, New York Times
“As a former editor of People magazine, Landon Jones is an expert on the rise of celebrity culture in this country and its troubling social costs. His mesmerizing book, revealing in unsettling detail how America’s addiction to celebrity has heightened its political and class divisions and weakened community and family ties, is a must-read.”
—Lynne Olson, author of Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt’s Ancient Temples from Destruction