The art of the public grovel
Subtitle: sexual sin and public confession in America
By: Susan Wise Bauer.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Princeton
Language: eng
Number of pages: 337
ISBN-13: 9780691138107
Subjects: Sex scandals -- United States -- History; Politicians -- Sexual behavior -- United States -- History; Presidents -- Sexual behavior -- United States -- History; Confession -- Social aspects -- United States -- History; Evangelicalism -- United States; United States -- Moral conditions
Description: "In this history of public confession in modern America, Bauer explains why and how a type of confession that first arose among nineteenth-century evangelicals has today become the required form for any successful public admission of wrongdoing - even when the wrongdoer has no connection with evangelicalism and the context is thoroughly secular. She shows how Protestant revivalism, group psychotherapy, and the advent of talk TV combined to turn evangelical-style confession into a mainstream secular rite."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Grover the good, Belshazzar Blaine, and the rapacious woman; title: In the presence of the elect (with the world looking on); title: Aimee Semple McPherson and the devil; title: Confession goes public; title: Ted Kennedy misreads his public; title: Jimmy Carter, traitor to the cause; title: Jim Bakker shoots his allies; title: Jimmy Swaggart's model confession; title: Clinton and the three public confessions; title: Unaware of change; title: Conclusion: Predictions.