Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers

(Beacon Press, 2023)

Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers

A former People magazine editor reveals how our cult of celebrity has shaped our politics, our culture, and our personal lives—for better or worse.

From the writer and editor who coined the term “baby boomer” comes Celebrity Nation, an exploration into how and why fame no longer stems only from heroic achievements but from the number of “likes” and shares—and what this change means for American culture. Landon Jones—who spent decades in “celebrityland” only to emerge, like Alice, blinking in the sunlight—brings a personal and first-person perspective on fame and its dark underbelly, complicated even further by the arrival of the internet and social media.

Jones draws on his experience as the former managing editor of People magazine to bolster his account with profiles of celebrities he knew personally, ranging from Malcolm X to Princess Diana, as well as observations about contemporary social media stars like Kim Kardashian and computer-generated macro-influencer Miquela, a self-proclaimed “19-year-old Robot living in LA.” In analyzing the stories of over 75 celebrities, spanning decades and industries, Jones shows how celebrity has been wielded as a weapon of mass distraction to spawn narcissism, harm, and loneliness.

And yet, in these stories we also see a path forward. Jones highlights luminaries like Nobel Peace prize winner Maria Ressa and lauded environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who have effected meaningful change not by glorifying themselves but by turning to their communities for action. A lively analysis of celebrity culture’s impact on nearly every facet of our lives, Celebrity Nation helps us to recognize how the apparatus of fame operates.

ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS ABOUT CELEBRITY NATION

The Face of Fame: Sinéad O’Connor and Prince Harry
by Stuart Mitchner (August 2, 2023)

Landon Jones helped create a fame-obsessed culture. Now he has regrets
interview with Philip Drost  (July 30, 2023)

Feeling Obsessed With Celebrities? Princeton Author Landon Jones Can Explain That
by Richard K. Rein (July 12, 2023)

‘Beware of celebrity,’ warns former People magazine editor, a St. Louis native
interview with Jane Henderson  (July 7, 2023)

How celebrity and fans reshape our world
by Sanjay Sipahimalani (July 1, 2023)

Landon Y. Jones’ “Celebrity Nation” 
by Matt R. Lohr (June 29, 2023)

How America evolved into a culture of fans and followers
radio interview with RNZ (June 28, 2023)

Tracing a Path from Hero Worship to ‘Celebrity Nation’ with Landon Jones
interview with Dan Aubrey (June 28, 2023)

How Do We Know Who We Are? 
by Sheila Kohler (June 26, 2023)

The three rules suitors had to follow if they wanted to dance with Princess Diana
by Rhiannon de Cann (June 26, 2023)

Author Landon Y. Jones discusses meeting Princess Diana and the evolution of celebrity
podcast interview with Kinsey Schofield (June 26, 2023)

Famous for being famous – a review of Celebrity Nation.
by Edward Tenner (June 23, 2023)

The good, the bad and the ugly of celebrity memoirs.
by Jane Sullivan (June 23, 2023)

Tracing the Evolution of Celebrity Memoirs, from Charles Lindbergh to Will Smith
by Landon Jones (May 9, 2023)

‘Celebrity Nation’: New Book Tracks How Celebrity Worship Took Over in the United States
by Landon Jones (May 1, 2023)

Landon Jones picks: The best books about how celebrity culture works and what it is doing to America today
by Landon Jones (April 2023)

Advance Praise:

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 Elon Musk

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.”

—Frank Rich, former columnist for 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