Sticky Reputations: The Politics of Collective Memory in Midcentury America

Sticky Reputations examines the changes in American politics from the Depression to the Age of Consensus, analyzing how the range of political options narrowed in the period. In the course of this analysis, the author examines those ＂sticky reputations＂ of figures whose reputation is so solidified that an attack on their reputation in turn affects the reputation of the person who presents an alternative perspective.

Gary Alan Fine is the John Evans Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University. During 2010-2011 he was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He is also the author of Difficult Reputations: Collective Memories of the Evil, Inept, and Controversial.