By: Zayd Hamid, CARP Intern After World War I, the German state transformed from an illiberal constitutional monarchy to a semi-liberal republic. That republic decayed into a fascist dictatorship approximately a decade later. That latter transformation also gave rise to one of history’s most brutal dictators: Adolf Hitler. Hitler established a hegemonic cult of personality …
Continue reading A Broken Crown: the Kaiser’s Rebuke of Hitler
By Zayd Hamid Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin is the youngest female head of state in the world. With that distinction comes attention to her private life. Marin gained national attention in mid-August after a risqué photo of Finnish model Sabina Särkkä was leaked after a party at Marin’s official residence, Kesäranta, after the Ruisrock music festival …
By Jeffrey Kafka Jr and Camilla Bracamonte Feature photo: Licensed under 2022 Miami Dolphins Ltd. Ex Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores has filed a lawsuit against the NFL on the fact of Racial Discrimination during the process of hiring new coaches in the NFL. Brian Flores said that he felt “the decision has already been …
If you missed the webinar on May 15, 2020, featuring Martijn Icks and Eric Shiraev discussing Dr. Icks's chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Character Assassination and Reputation Mangement, it's now available here on YouTube. Martijn Icks and Eric Shiraev delved into how women throughout history have become targets of character assassination. From Cleopatra to …
Continue reading Webinar #3: Evil Queens and Wicked Empresses
By Martijn Icks In December 62 BCE, Rome was gripped by a bizarre scandal. Publius Clodius Pulcher, a young man from a noble family, had been caught trespassing in the house of one of the most prominent and powerful men in the city: none other than Julius Caesar. He had been trying to sneak in …
By Martijn Icks On June 21st, Edwina Hagen and I organized the colloquium “Character Assassination! Media and Mudslinging from Caligula to King Gorilla” in Amsterdam. We invited experts on various periods in Western history to discuss practices of character assassination from an historical perspective. Comparing various case studies, we hoped to shed light on some …
By Martijn Icks Ethnic minorities are particularly vulnerable to character attacks. Last March, Dutch parliament passed a motion urging the political party DENK to stop publishing intimidating video clips about MPs with Turkish roots. Signatories expressed their concern that MPs were attacked “primarily on the basis of their descent” rather than because of their political …
By Martijn Icks In my previous blog, I argued for the importance of historical perspectives on character assassination. However, historical research also comes with its own challenges and limitations. Let’s have a look at some of these. Perhaps the most obvious challenge is the danger of anachronism: we should be very careful not to assume …
Continue reading Character Assassination: The Historical Perspective [Part 2]
By Henri van Nispen Caligula is clearly a case of imperial madness and hardly suitable for serious reflection upon today’s problems. I care to differ. It is a set phrase to say that every historian reflects his own interests as well as those of the Zeitgeist. Pondering the ruler of his day, the German medievalist …
The so-called Trump Bump is a gift that keeps on giving. Traditional news outlets and their social media competitors for advertising dollars, liberals and conservatives, and even Trump and Putin all benefit from the commodification of public interest in the Trump White House.
Character Assassination and Reputation Politics Research Lab 