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Scandal!
Scandal reigns in the world of politics, celebrity, business, religion, royalty, and art, and this book covers it all—from Watergate to Iraq, Princess Diana to Oscar Wilde. Distinguished writer Colin Wilson delves into the murky intrigues of American and British life to bring the most scandalous secrets to light. Containing brand-new chapters on Michael Jackson, ENRON, the death of David Kelly, the Catholic Church sex scandals, and the cash-for-honors scandal as well as an updated chapter on O.J. Simpson, here are the embarrassing true stories the rich and famous tried but failed to hide.
368 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 1986
About the author
Colin Wilson
440 books1,294 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized.
Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as "blinkered" and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. This blinkering has some evolutionary advantages in that it stops us from being completely immersed in wonder, or in the huge stream of events, and hence unable to act. However, to live properly we need to access more than this everyday consciousness. Wilson believes that our peak experiences of joy and meaningfulness are as real as our experiences of angst and, since we are more fully alive at these moments, they are more real. These experiences can be cultivated through concentration, paying attention, relaxation and certain types of work.
Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized.
Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as "blinkered" and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. This blinkering has some evolutionary advantages in that it stops us from being completely immersed in wonder, or in the huge stream of events, and hence unable to act. However, to live properly we need to access more than this everyday consciousness. Wilson believes that our peak experiences of joy and meaningfulness are as real as our experiences of angst and, since we are more fully alive at these moments, they are more real. These experiences can be cultivated through concentration, paying attention, relaxation and certain types of work.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 4, 2023
Simplesmente.... revelador de grandes escândalos!!!😲😲😲
Gostei imenso de ler este livro, pois tem uma panóplia de escândalos que eu nem conhecia😎😎 sobre figuras públicas e/ou famosas!!
Além disso, ao longo da sua leitura, constatamos uma grande preocupação dos autores em descrever cada escândalo com uma enorme riqueza de pormenores e suas fontes de informação. Parabéns aos autores pelo belíssimo trabalho 👏👏!!
Gostei imenso de ler este livro, pois tem uma panóplia de escândalos que eu nem conhecia😎😎 sobre figuras públicas e/ou famosas!!
Além disso, ao longo da sua leitura, constatamos uma grande preocupação dos autores em descrever cada escândalo com uma enorme riqueza de pormenores e suas fontes de informação. Parabéns aos autores pelo belíssimo trabalho 👏👏!!
August 14, 2012
Like many hidden gems, this book was sitting on a remainder table, priced at a dollar. I figured I would read a bit of it on the beach and toss it. Instead, I was fascinated. Ever hear a reference to "the Profumo scandal" or "the Don Juan hoax" and wonder what they meant? For that matter, read about the real Ponzi Scheme. This book has short (3 to 7 pages) descriptions of the best-known 30-odd scandals of Britain and the U.S. over the past 300 years. Every library should have it on the reference shelf!
September 12, 2021
I'm entertained and I can't deny it! Scandal, a kind of distorting mirror that obscures the truth just as much as it reveals it.
I'm here for the Clinton-Lewinsky case. There's actually a lot going on in the 'scoop' - the Vox, the Blue cocktail dress, tapes tapes tapes, cigar incident. Clinton and Lewinsky (...and apparently, a lot more women!) indulged in phone and oral sex, and even kinky acts inside the White House. Thanks to Linda Tripp for spilling the beans, she needed to let the cat out of the bag! Through this initiative, the House of Representatives collected 18 boxes of evidence, while the House Judiciary Committee released 3,183 pages of report to the public, plus the incredibly embarrassing videotaped testimonials! Such a shame, Bill!!!
I'm here for the Clinton-Lewinsky case. There's actually a lot going on in the 'scoop' - the Vox, the Blue cocktail dress, tapes tapes tapes, cigar incident. Clinton and Lewinsky (...and apparently, a lot more women!) indulged in phone and oral sex, and even kinky acts inside the White House. Thanks to Linda Tripp for spilling the beans, she needed to let the cat out of the bag! Through this initiative, the House of Representatives collected 18 boxes of evidence, while the House Judiciary Committee released 3,183 pages of report to the public, plus the incredibly embarrassing videotaped testimonials! Such a shame, Bill!!!
July 26, 2016
Good for someone who loves to gossip. hahaha... this book even cerita pasal the scandalous royal from as early as 1700.. call me ignorant but i don't really know them...but still i read it till the last page!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews