What do you think?
Rate this book
Age of Oprah
Over the last two decades Oprah Winfrey's journey has taken her from talk show queen to-as Time Magazine has asserted-"one of the most important figures in popular culture." Through her talk show, magazine, website, seminars, charity work, and public appearances, her influence in the social, economic, and political arenas of American life is considerable and until now, largely unexamined. In The Age of Oprah, media scholar and journalist Janice Peck traces Winfrey's growing cultural impact and illustrates the fascinating parallels between her road to fame and fortune and the political-economic rise of neoliberalism in this country. While seeking to understand Oprah's ascent to the near- iconic status that she enjoys today, Peck's book provides a fascinating window into the intersection of American politics and culture over the past quarter century.
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 30, 2008
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 27, 2013
It's great hearing a media scholar criticize Oprah's rubbish while tracing her success as concomitant with the tragic rise of neoliberalism. Oprah is not a feminist. Peck's book shows how she favors the individualistic recovery model over political analysis of the structural roots of inequalities every time. For those of us who have recognized Oprah's opportunism in a vague way, this book clarifies her lack of any real support of social struggles for equality quite concisely.
At first I rated this book four stars, but the more I reflect on it, the more important I believe it is, so I changed my rating to five stars.
At first I rated this book four stars, but the more I reflect on it, the more important I believe it is, so I changed my rating to five stars.
November 19, 2008
Oprah is a brand. She markets herself as a feminist but is not. She blames individuals for their problems rather than questioning the larger social structure.
A quote from the book that pretty much sums things up:
"The Oprah Winfrey Show claims that it represents a version of popular feminism that empowers women. If feminism seeks to dissolved the public/private divide by exposing and analyzing the relationship between personal experience and political power, the fact that talk shows publicize the private lives of women - who have historically been excluded from public discourse - might invite a homology between feminism and talk programs. But they differ in crucial ways. For feminism, the purpose of examining one's experience is to achieve an analysis of women's lives in terms of structural gender relations of power and to derive a political program of collective action. For talk shows, self-revelation is an end in itself - substance of the entertainment. The programs articulate the frustrations of women's subordination in a man's world, they do so without examining the systematic nature and material foundations of those frustrations. The Winfrey show phobically avoids male bashing. Women are much more likely to be the target of criticism as Winfrey and many female audience members strive not to alienate even the most overtly sexist male guests."
A quote from the book that pretty much sums things up:
"The Oprah Winfrey Show claims that it represents a version of popular feminism that empowers women. If feminism seeks to dissolved the public/private divide by exposing and analyzing the relationship between personal experience and political power, the fact that talk shows publicize the private lives of women - who have historically been excluded from public discourse - might invite a homology between feminism and talk programs. But they differ in crucial ways. For feminism, the purpose of examining one's experience is to achieve an analysis of women's lives in terms of structural gender relations of power and to derive a political program of collective action. For talk shows, self-revelation is an end in itself - substance of the entertainment. The programs articulate the frustrations of women's subordination in a man's world, they do so without examining the systematic nature and material foundations of those frustrations. The Winfrey show phobically avoids male bashing. Women are much more likely to be the target of criticism as Winfrey and many female audience members strive not to alienate even the most overtly sexist male guests."
February 1, 2011
This is an interesting read. Ties in very well to the Taibbi book I just finished, particularly the detailing the Reagan Revolution and the shift from an economy with Keynesian theory underpinning, to a monetarist approach. The Reagan deregulation ultimately led to our current economic meltdown with the deregulated financial sector leading the charge.
Peck, a former freelance writer turned academic, writes with a well-documented, but very readable style. The challenge for most readers is getting beyond the hagiography of Oprah and looking honestly at the points Peck is making. If they do that, and really consider the underlying economic issues she is highlighting about neoliberalism, Americans would be better off.
Sadly, most won't move beyond their comfort zones of Faux News, CNN, and even MSNBC.
Peck, a former freelance writer turned academic, writes with a well-documented, but very readable style. The challenge for most readers is getting beyond the hagiography of Oprah and looking honestly at the points Peck is making. If they do that, and really consider the underlying economic issues she is highlighting about neoliberalism, Americans would be better off.
Sadly, most won't move beyond their comfort zones of Faux News, CNN, and even MSNBC.
May 5, 2025
Meticulously researched. The book makes a pretty compelling and damning diagnosis of our country's problems. it certainly doesn't portray Oprah in a positive light but I would have liked a more in depth look at her as a person and not just a cultural institution
Want to Read
September 23, 2008Looking forward to reading this book by CU professor.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews