Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars

"Kliph Nesteroff’s chosen subject is a tricky one. After all, pop culture comes in for criticism from all sides. Or does it? As you’d expect, you’ll find in these pages many self-appointed public scolds who, affronted by depictions of sex, politics, or religion, have convinced governments to censor artists for decades. But today, some of these very same individuals and organizations can be found making bad-faith complaints about “wokeness.” The through line, of course, is a regressive resistance to social change, and Nesteroff’s meticulously researched book chronicles the many battles that have been waged on that front in the culture wars since the birth of show business. It expertly provides the one thing lacking in too many discussions of popular culture: deep, substantive, meaningful context."