The invention of celebrity

Fame and celebrity before Instagram and YouTube .

Often understood as a feature of modern culture, the phenomenon of celebrity production has ancient roots. In The Invention of Celebrity , historian Antoine Lilti shows that the mechanisms that elevate ordinary people to public figures were developed in Europe during the 18th century, well before the existence of the film industry, the tabloid press, and television, and were perfected during the Romantic period on both sides of the Atlantic.

Personalities such as philosopher Voltaire and composer Franz Liszt were celebrities in their time and aroused the curiosity and passion of fans. In Paris, London, Berlin, and New York, the rise of the press, advertising, and the emergence of the entertainment industry profoundly transformed the visibility of prominent figures, as they sought to blur the lines between private life and public spectacle.

Thus, it became possible to acquire portraits of opera singers and biographies of courtesans. Not even politics was spared this cultural upheaval: Marie Antoinette, George Washington, and Napoleon Bonaparte experienced a political world transformed by the new demands of fame. It was no longer enough to perform a legitimate public function; it was crucial to be popular as well.

The Invention of Celebrity reveals the birth of celebrity culture in the 18th century and, at the same time, discusses its value in the 21st century. The historian retraces the profound social unrest precipitated by the rise of celebrities and explores the ambivalence surrounding this phenomenon. The book chronicles the evolution of celebrity as a modern form of social prestige, assuming the role that glory once played in the aristocratic world. At once desired and contested, its history illuminates the contradictions raised by the blurring of boundaries between personal life, cultural life, and the market, as seen today.

“The author interprets celebrity as a historical theme and works with rigor and originality.” – The New York Review of Books

"With rigor and erudition, in The Invention of Celebrity , the former editor of the Annales presents the forms of public recognition in the 18th century in a realistic way. [...] It is an important book." – Le Monde

“The paradox that Antoine Lilti brilliantly sustains is that the phenomenon of celebrity is not new, but a characteristic feature of societies since the mid-18th century; its mechanisms have not changed.” – Libération

"With The Invention of Celebrity, Antoine Lilti has established himself as one of the most important and talented historians of eighteenth-century France [...] It is a creative study that is both audacious and theoretically grounded." – Colin Jones, Queen Mary University of London

“The author reminds us that even as we laugh at contemporary celebrity culture, we need to take it seriously, not merely as an excrescence or a pathology, but as a constituent element of political and cultural modernity.” – Books and Ideas