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Although posterity has generally known Bernardin de Saint-Pierre for his bestselling Paul et Virginie, his output was encyclopaedic. Using new sources, this monograph explores the many facets of a celebrity writer in the Ancien Régime, the Revolution and the early nineteenth century.Bernardin attracted a readership to whom, irrespective of age, gender or social situation, he became a guide to living. He was nominated by Louis XVI to manage the Jardin des plantes, by Revolutionary bodies to teach at the École normale and to membership of the Institut. He deplored unquestioning adherence to Newtonian ideas, materialistic atheism and human misdeeds in what could be considered proto-ecological terms. He bemoaned analytical, reductionist approaches: his philosophy placed human beings at the centre of the universe and stressed the interconnectedness of cosmic harmony. Bernardin learned enormously from travel to Eastern Europe and the Indian Ocean. He attacked slavery, championed a national education system and advocated justice for authors. Fresh information and interpretation show that he belonged to neither the philosophe or anti-philosophe camp. A reformist, he envisioned a regenerated France as a nation of liberty offering asylum for refugees.This study demonstrates the range of thought and expression of an incontournable polymath in an age of transformation.

Authors, French --- Saint-Pierre, Bernardin de, --- France --- Intellectual life --- Ecology --- French Revolution --- Colonialism and slavery --- Celebrity Culture --- Enlightenment

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Celebrities --- Fame --- Media --- Celebrity culture --- Celebs --- Cult of celebrity --- Famous people --- Famous persons --- Illustrious people --- Well-known people --- Persons --- Fan clubs --- Social aspects --- Sociology of culture

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Once a title held only by a privileged few, fame went hand-in-hand with respect and hard work. To be famous meant that you had achieved something noteworthy, or had an exceptional talent. But things have changed, as demonstrated by the number of singularly untalented people who are currently famous. Why has there been such a shift in our notion of fame and why has the desire for fame become such a powerful motivation for so many people? Mark Rowlands brings his philosophical expertise to bear on our concept of fame and explores the reasons behind its radical transformation. To understand this “new variant fame”, Rowlands argues, we must engage in an extensive philosophical excavation that takes us back to a dispute that began in fourth-century BC Athens. Rowlands reveals that our presentday notion of fame and the extremes that accompany it are symptoms of a significant cultural change: the decline of Enlightenment ideas has seen individualism eclipse objectivism about value, so much so that what characterizes Western society today is its constitutional inability to distinguish quality from bullshit. This, argues Rowlands, is the predicament in which we find ourselves today and which explains how fame can now be unconnected with any discernible distinction: we have lost any grip on the idea that there might be objective standards of evaluation even for some of the most important choices we make. A fascinating mix of amusing anecdote and serious philosophical reflection, Fame presents us with a new way of looking at and understanding fame as we now know it, one that shows us how and why we have become the fame-hungry people we are today. It is a book written for anyone who has wondered how the world could ever have turned out like this.

Fame. --- Celebrities. --- Celebrity culture --- Celebs --- Cult of celebrity --- Famous people --- Famous persons --- Illustrious people --- Well-known people --- Persons --- Fan clubs --- Celebrity --- Renown --- Glory --- Fame --- Philosophy. --- Rowlands, Mark

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Graves of Upstate New York presents a fascinating look at the lives and deaths of 100 legendary Americans who are laid to rest in Upstate New York. D'Imperio takes readers on a journey across the state, visiting an array of famous New York grave sites, from Mark Twain, Harriet Tubman, and James Fenimore Cooper to Helen Hayes, Lucille Ball, four US presidents, a Kentucky Derby-winning horse, and the most famous one-legged tap dancer in the world. D'Imperio tells the story of each individual, along with photographs and detailed information about the cemetery. From West Point to Lake Placid to Buffalo and all points north, south, east, and west, Graves of Upstate New York offers a cultural tour across the great expanse of Upstate New York in search of its famous residents and their lasting legacies.

Cemeteries --- Celebrities --- Celebrity culture --- Celebs --- Cult of celebrity --- Famous people --- Famous persons --- Illustrious people --- Well-known people --- Persons --- Fan clubs --- Tombs --- New York (State)

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An intriguing case study on how popular images of Oceania, mediated through a developing culture of celebrity, contributed to the formation of British identity both domestically and as a nascent imperial power in the eighteenth century.

Celebrities --- History --- Celebrity culture --- Celebs --- Cult of celebrity --- Famous people --- Famous persons --- Illustrious people --- Well-known people --- Persons --- Fan clubs --- British identity. --- Captain James Cook. --- Celebrity Culture. --- Joseph Banks. --- Oceania. --- commodified. --- eighteenth century. --- empire. --- fame. --- imperial power. --- mass print. --- national identity. --- public icons. --- race. --- scandalous.