Elizabeth Taylor

"Cashmore (Beyond Black: Celebrity and Race in Obama’s America) combines broad research and personal observations in this lively study examining how Elizabeth Taylor transformed our perception of modern celebrity." – Publishers Weekly

“In prose that is engaging and enlightening, Ellis Cashmore shows how Elizabeth Taylor changed everything we presently know about celebrity and the way it works. As a child actress who never left the limelight and for decades reigned as one the world's most famous and most scandalous moviestars, Elizabeth Taylor's greatest role was playing herself. Cashmere here shows how a disintegration of the private that now seems commonplace was condensed in and through the figure of Elizabeth Taylor, the first modern celebrity.” – Brenda R. Weber, Professor and Chair of the Department of Gender Studies, Indiana University, USA

“Elizabeth Taylor is a conversational yet meticulously researched account of this pathbreaking star's storied and often controversial life. Cashmore's wide ranging volume maps Taylor's trajectory against major developments in the history of the twentieth century, often adopting a philosophical tone to emphasize that her singularity nevertheless resonated with wider cultural trends. Cashmore convinces that, bar none, Taylor was a force with which to be reckoned.” – Suzanne Leonard, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, Simmons College, USA