Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity, And American Politics (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Inaugural week, 1993: Barbara Streisand led the Celebrity Salute to the new president..." (more)
Key Phrases: White House, New York, Bill Clinton (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you think the stories about Bill Clinton are outrageous, Gail Collins has some tales that will really burn your ears. Scandalous rumors have been a part of American politics since the days of George Washington's alleged mistresses and Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Grover Cleveland was rumored to have beaten his wife so severely during her pregnancy that their daughter was born with extensive brain damage. When Woodrow Wilson proposed to his second wife, a popular joke claimed, she was so surprised that she fell out of bed. And John Fremont's 1856 run for office was destroyed by repeated whisperings that he was, variously, illegitimate, Catholic, and a cannibal. Collins insightfully traces the relationship between gossip and government from an era when politics was the national pastime to the present blurring of the lines between politicians and celebrities.

From Kirkus Reviews

If you think President Clinton is engulfed in rumor and innuendo, consider John Fremont. A presidential candidate in the early 19th century, he was rumored to be a cannibal and a Roman Catholic, the latter charge proving more damaging to his campaign. This is but one anecdote from Collins's fascinating, hilarious, and at times insightful study of the role of rumor in US politics. Gossip about politicians is as old as the nation itself, the content of such gossip can tell us much about our anxieties, our hatreds as a nation. Race and sexual malfeasance have been constants, yet have resonated more strongly at different times. Hamilton defended himself against charges of corruption by proving he was an adulterernot a tactic likely To work today. Fremont was undone by a strong anti-Irish sentiment in an era of rapidly escalating immigration. Newspapers in the 19th century, less concerned with respectability than with pleasing a politicized readership and perhaps gaining political favor, could and would print anything about a politician. As newspapers became more respectable in the 20th century, they also became more circumspect in their reporting. The private lives of politicians tended to remain private and became idealized by the public (as with FDR and JFK). This changed in the 1970s. Outlets for gossip began to proliferatesupermarket tabloids, cable TV, the Internet, talk radio. At the same time, politicians increasingly sold themselves as personalities, inviting speculation and investigation into their private lives. The idealized became tarnished. Yet the sheer amount of gossip (and real transgressions of politicians) have left us so cynical as to be surprised or outraged by very little. To thrive, gossip must have rules of behavior to be broken. Such rules are now missing or unclear, and this may prove to be the demise of political gossip. The book does go on (25 pages on Grover Cleveland is quite enough), but Collins, a veteran political observer and a member of the New York Times editorial board, offers a good read that puts present political scandals into historical perspective. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (March 18, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688149146
• ISBN-13: 978-0688149147
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #279,146 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gossip & Fun, April 19, 2002

By	John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Scorpion Tongues: The Irresistible History of Gossip in American Politics (Paperback)

This book is the greatest hits album of professional political muckrakers. Just when you think that they can not come up with something more despicable you turn the page and - bang, one more story full of lies and broken careers. The author lays the book out chronologically so that we start with the founding father and the hits just keep on coming all the way to the current high level of performance. If you are interested in politics and follow the scene then this book is not some much shocking as it is full of "that's where they got it from". If politics is a new hobby then your opinion of these stand up citizens will not drop lower. Overall, this is a fun book that you finish quite quickly

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wicked romp through the history of American politics --, June 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Scorpion Tongues: The Irresistible History of Gossip in American Politics (Paperback)

Gail Collins kept me alternately laughing or spellbound with her chronology of rumor and innuendo whispered through the ages down America's corridors of power. A must read for anyone who loves American history, public relations, or just "good dirt," Collins defines the issues behind scandals and discusses why certain gossip either grabs our attention or fails to take hold. I had a blast learning with this one. Thanks, Gail!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gossip About Presidents, Who'dathunk?, January 25, 2001

By	Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Scorpion Tongues: The Irresistible History of Gossip in American Politics (Paperback)

Gail Collins' Scorpion Tongues is, according to its subtitle, the irrestible history of gossip in American politics, and that is exactly what it is. It will be just right for the reader who will want to settle down and take pleasure in all the mud slinging of the past and for a chance to realize that neither times nor people change all that much. The book does try to give a spin to the stories in order to justify the book on more enlightened grounds of trying to show historical patterns and different eras and forms of gossip. But that is not why people are reading this book and that is not why the readers will be passing this book to their friends. It's the gossip, stupid. A scandal filled romp through American history.