Abstract
This chapter takes a brief look at the history of the intersection of political scandal and pop culture starting with the editorial cartoon era, with particular note of Grover Cleveland and the work of Thomas Nast. A definition of pop culture which focuses on transmission of an idea or symbol to a large audience via a contemporary mechanism is followed by a definition of scandal that dismisses ordinary corrupt behavior from the more narrow construction of scandal used to focus the discussion in subsequent chapters.
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- 1.
As of July 2018.
- 2.
The retort from Cleveland’s supporters was “Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha.”
- 3.
In the 1964 Supreme Court case of Jacobellis v Ohio (378 U.S. 184 1964), Stewart claimed that he could not clearly or easily define “hard core pornography” “but I know it when I see it.”
- 4.
Alderman is the title used for members of Chicago’s city council.
- 5.
The Economist story notes that during that same time, no mayors were convicted.
- 6.
The movie was based, in part, on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (2005).
- 7.
New York still lags behind Illinois in numbers of former governors who can be classified as convicted felons.
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Twombly, J. (2019). Introduction and Definitions. In: Political Scandal and American Pop Culture. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01340-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01340-0_1
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