Character Assassination Throughout the Ages

Character assassination is a deliberate damage of an individual's reputation. Most notable victims of character assassination are political and religious leaders, officials, celebrities, writers, scientists, athletes and other public figures. 'Character assassins' target private lives, behavior, values, and identity of their victims. The editors and contributors to this volume have gathered cases and insights from the fields of history, political science and psychology to track many common characteristics of character assassination, as well as to describe their unique features over different times and places. The authors show that character assassination is a timeless, cross-cultural phenomenon that reveals itself in a variety of forms and methods typical for every cultural, political, and technological epoch. The book is designed for an educated audience, historians, sociologists, psychologists, journalists as well as students majoring in political science, history, sociology, psychology, and communications.

Eric Shiraev is an author, co-author, and co-editor of fourteen books and numerous publications in the fields of political psychology, international relations, and cross-cultural studies. He emphasizes the role of identity and culture in politics and international relations. Besides his teaching and scholarly work, Eric Shiraev writes policy briefs and opinion essays for government, nongovernment organizations, and the media.


Martijn Icks is a researcher and teacher at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany, as well as a former Marie Curie Fellow. He specializes in Roman imperial history and the history of character assassination. His PhD thesis on the Roman emperor Elagabalus has appeared in three languages.