The Crown and the Spotlight: How Power Learned to Perform : True Stories of Fame, Myth, and Manipulation from the Ancient World to Modern Celebrity Culture

From Cleopatra's gilded barge to the age of Instagram, Mythologies of Fame unravels how humanity has built, worshiped, and destroyed its idols for more than two thousand years. Historian Matthew Nichols takes readers on a journey through royal courts, film studios, and algorithmic feeds to reveal the hidden machinery that turns charisma into control — and desire into profit. Across fifteen vivid chapters, real figures step out of myth and back into history: Cleopatra staging her first act of political theater on the Nile. Napoleon painting himself into immortality. Marilyn Monroe battling the studio machine that made her. Diana, Princess of Wales, redefining empathy in a world ruled by lenses. The influencers and algorithms that inherited their thrones. Part history, part cultural x-ray, this book explores how performance became identity — and how every era has confused visibility with power. It's a story of beauty, manipulation, and the universal hunger to be seen. Whether you read for history, psychology, or modern culture, Mythologies of Fame will leave you asking one uneasy question: In a world where everyone can be famous, who's really watching whom?