Book contents
- The Greatest of All Time
- The Greatest of All Time
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Economics of American Greatness
- 2 The Problem of the Great All-Knowing Answer Man
- 3 The Rise and Fall of the Great Changemakers
- 4 How the Babe Became the Greatest (and the Roosevelts, Too)
- 5 The Great Counterculture Conundrum
- Conclusion
- Index
1 - The Economics of American Greatness
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2025
Book contents
- The Greatest of All Time
- The Greatest of All Time
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Economics of American Greatness
- 2 The Problem of the Great All-Knowing Answer Man
- 3 The Rise and Fall of the Great Changemakers
- 4 How the Babe Became the Greatest (and the Roosevelts, Too)
- 5 The Great Counterculture Conundrum
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
This chapter studies the first Hall of Fame established in the United States: NYU’s Hall of Fame of Great Americans in 1900. The episode shines a light on the American conception of greatness and how that relates to fame. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States faced an “inflation” of fame while greatness became a scarce resource. To understand the complex differences between greatness and fame, this chapter’s narrative weaves together the European tradition of status, the seedy transatlantic history of eugenics, and the unusual Hall of Fame candidacy of Edgar Allan Poe.
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- Information
- The Greatest of All TimeA History of an American Obsession, pp. 10 - 46Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025