"Cashmore's book attempts to be more than another rehash of scandals. He discusses Jackson, who he calls 'a bewilderingly complex character', in the light of his role as a 'shining symbol of a post-civil rights land of opportunity', and looks at how Jackson's character was affected by American culture." –The Independent
"As innovative, entertaining, and slyly subversive as its subject was at his peak, Ellis Cashmore's vibrant and challenging counter-clock world examination of Michael Jackson prompts us to reconsider the relationship between Jackson the icon and Jackson the abuser: it is no less than a
Time's Arrow for the former King of Pop." –
Joe Street, Associate Professor in History, Northumbria University, UK "
The Destruction and Creation of Michael Jackson can hardly be classified as a biography, though it does trace the events in Jackson's life. Rather, Cashmore uses the pop star as a prismatic lens through which readers can consider how popular music, race, and celebrity intersect to produce the multiple, conflicting and still-emergent meanings of Jackson and his legacy. This innovative, gripping reverse genealogy prompts a profound rethinking of how we come to sanctify, abhor, and retell the life stories of global icons like Jackson." –
Lindsay Bernhagen, Lecturer in Women's and Gender Studies and Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, USA