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This chapter considers the Watergate Scandal in the U.S. as a democratic ritual. It examines the how and why of the perception of Watergate and explains how it became a moral symbol. It describes what must happen for an entire society to experience fundamental crisis and ritual renewal.

Notoriously, the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 moved beyond monetary relief to establish precise dietaries for the poor ‘relieved’ in union workhouses, out relief now something only to be given in absolute emergencies. By dictating what the poor ate, as opposed to what they might eat, workhouse dietaries established an absolute biological minimum for bodily survival decided by individual poor law unions within perimeters set by the central state through the Poor Law Commission. While the implications of workhouse dietaries have been subject to careful study, this chapter takes a broader perspective. It examines the makings of the idea of the dietary, analysing debates and discussion concerning both the physiological and practical science of pauper diet, as well as earlier examining antecedent, before going on to explore the implementation of workhouse dietaries in the new centrally-controlled but still locally operated system What emerges is a highly uneven system, patterned by varying ideological, practical, economic and political imperatives. The chapter also analyses the critiques of the system, exploring both the centrality of critiques to the politicking of radical politicians and to the rise of a particular type of humanitarianism, a concern with the bodily welfare of the poor.

Henry Morton Stanley became as affluent as the aristocrats, bankers, and businessmen who extolled his heroism and manly strength. His mission was an abject failure, a bitter and grueling wild goose chase that needlessly cost hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives. The success of Stanley's expedition depended on the Arab leader's ability to procure porters to transport the mission's huge stock of supplies. Having reassembled his Advance and Rear columns, Stanley set out yet again to cross the Ituri rain forest. The “Stanley craze,” expressed itself not only in the crowds assembled at his public events but also in the thousands of unsolicited letters he received. The “Stanley craze” was so all-embracing, so widespread, and so rare for someone of his humble background that it seemed to say something important about modern life—or at least about what is now called the mass media. The “Stanley craze” turned into the “Stanley Scandal”.

This chapter analyzes the ways Black women fans have reacted to not being visible in the dominant spaces of fandom. It offers the fandom of ABC's Scandal—a program with Black women in central positions both behind and in front of the camera—as a primary example of the ways Black women fan communities work toward reinscription. Premiering on ABC in April 2012, the prime-time dramatic series produced by Grey's Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes and starring African American actress Kerry Washington became a literal embodiment of the type of labor Black women practice in fan spaces. In this case, Black female fans have transformed the central Black lead, canonically drawn as normative and racially neutral, into a culturally specific Black character. This is commonplace labor for non-White fans—particularly in the early-twenty-first-century's so-called postrace moment.

Holmes is frequently employed by a client in order to avert, or suppress a scandal. While secrecy is the client’s objective, the scandal itself is – usually – revealed to the privileged reader. This is exemplified by the very first Holmes short story, whose scandalous subject is even declared in its title. When the King of Bohemia employs Holmes to save his forthcoming marriage to Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the King of Scandinavia, full details of the incriminating evidence – letters and a cabinet photograph1 – are revealed in a comic catechism between Holmes and the King: ‘If this young person should produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is she to prove their authenticity?’ ‘There is the writing.’ ‘Pooh, pooh! Forgery.’ ‘My private note-paper.’ ‘Stolen.’ ‘My own seal.’ ‘Imitated.’ ‘My photograph.’ ‘Bought.’ ‘We were both in the photograph.’ ‘Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an indiscretion.’ (Adventures, 13)

The introduction lays out the framework for why we doubt what women say about their lives; defines the figure of the tainted witness as who a woman can become, not who she is; places the figure of the woman witness and the practices of testimony (legal and literary) in the context of raced and gendered histories of doubt; theorizes the presence of a testimonial network through which bodies, persons, and words moves as a circulatory system in which histories of slavery and colonialism are lodged and which incubates sexism and racism; analyzes how these pre-existing judgments lay in wait for any particular woman’s testimony in order to smear her; defines scandal as the substitution of the witness’s terms for hostile ones that are then repeated as if truth and are recycled through global media; and defines the “adequate witness” as one who provides a “holding environment” (following Winnicott) for testimony.

Chapter one begins with Anita Hill, situates the study at the beginning of the 1990s (with roots in the 1980s) within the context of post-Reagan neoliberalism, and argues that Anita Hill’s testimony initiates a new phase in the history of discrediting women’s public accounts of agentic response to sexual harassment. The chapter goes on to theorize that sexual harassment offers a test case of how the social contract, based as it is in a public/private split, is confounded by the presence of women in the workplace as citizens, workers, professionals, colleagues, and sexual agents rather than objects. Finally, the chapter examines how race and gender migrated in relation to judgment about Hill’s and Thomas’s life stories and claims the purposeful use of racism and sexism in the hearings.

Chapter two traces Rigoberta Menchú’s search for an adequate witness from the interview she gave that became an international best seller to her recent vindication in Guatemalan court. The chapter goes on to identify and analyze two histories – the history of scandal and the history of testimony – as Menchú’s life story and life work move from book to documentary film to court. Finally the chapter theorizes that by following both histories, we can better understand how testimony travels within a network, how it halts or continues, and how multiple audiences receive it.

Chapter three examines the historicized women’s life narrative as it migrates into the 21st century, via Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club and television show, to the genres of self-help and redemption --analyzes how the memoir scandals of the late 1990s were invoked to discredit Rigoberta Menchú’s testimonio, but also focused additional vitriol at women who wrote about incest and sexual violence within families. The chapter goes on to offer an alternative history of the memoir boom to the conventional association of memoir and confessional culture by dating its beginning to self-representational writing by radical women of color, queer activists, and literary innovators in the 1980s, and uses the response to Kathryn Harrison’s memoir, The Kiss, to demonstrate how judgments about women’s credibility operate across legal and cultural courts of public opinion. The chapter further claims Harrison as pivotal episode in the memoir boom that solidified the power of the backlash and made it a formal part of the boom, and identifies further lack of credibility and social authority as James’ Frey’s memoir, A Million Little Pieces, was attacked. The chapter concludes by examining how Elizabeth Gilbert and Cheryl Strayed revived and redefined memoir to feature a traumatized heroine who may evade critique is she is resilient and sexually well-adjusted

Chapter four takes up the interest in second hand life narratives of girls exemplified by Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea and Nicholas Kristof’s Half the Sky and argues that humanitarian campaigns now promote ever purer (and younger) victims as deserving of empathy and Western intervention. The chapter goes on to identifiy the preference for blameless witnesses, sufficiently innocent to arouse nearly universal sympathy and often the victims of profoundly unsympathetic criminals populate accounts by Mortenson and Kristof, specifically by examining the “Three Cups of Tea” scandal. The chapter also theorizes that girls and women spark international awareness campaigns, as they should, but that humanitarian efforts like Mortenson’s do not necessarily operate in concert with local efforts at feminist reform. Finally, the chapter posits the appeal of the proxy witness: the man who speaks on behalf of girls and women who, in a turn of the humanitarian screw, is not so much their proxy as they are his.

This chapter discusses the experiences and challenges faced by the former governor of the National Bank of Vietnam. It also describes his experiences prior to the bank's establishment, as Vietnam negotiated with France in the Four-Party Conference on the various issues related to the transfer of sovereignty. During this time, Vietnam had inherited from the French government an empty treasury, a disheartened French business community, and a bureaucracy entrenched in antiquated colonial methods. It was against this gloomy backdrop that American aid began to arrive, first to help Northerners resettle in their new land, and later, to fund the import of American consumer goods for general public consumption, an initiative known as the Commercial Import Program. The chapter also discusses the 1956 Banknote Exchange Scandal, which highlighted the flaws inherent in the banknote counting process.

The post-9/11 trend toward intelligence outsourcing was accompanied by the emergence of a series of accountability problems. This chapter evaluates the accountability regime for contractors in the early 2000s and finds that this regime was imperfect but not inexistent. Six major cases of accountability failure shed light on three types of accountability problems involving contractors: inefficiencies, human rights abuses, and conflicts of interests. Intelligence contractors have not always been efficient, effective, or respected the law but they do not bear sole responsibility for the accountability problems in which they have been involved. These problems were caused by inadequate standards and deficient management on both sides of the public-private divide. While outsourcing can limit intelligence accountability, government accountability shortfalls also affect the outsourcing of intelligence. The chapter concludes that outsourcing and accountability are mutually interdependent.

“Voice of Betrayal” chronicles Clarks fall from grace after being at the center of a Cincinnati political scandal that involved the mass disfranchisement of African-American voters, fraud, and bribery.

The main focus of this chapter is analysis of a major scandal which decimated Manchester City in 1906–7. As a direct result of the treatment of players during the 1906–7 bribe scandal, the Players’ Union was established in Manchester. This was a crucial period in the evolution of football, with players’ rights coming to the fore as a result of the illegal payments scandal at City. The chapter also considers the career of Ernest Mangnall, who was a major influence on both United and City, bringing United their first trophy successes during this period. Although he tends to be remembered as United’s first successful manager, he contributed significantly to both clubs, providing United with ambition and a stadium of quality and City with their own major stadium and the ability to strengthen their support.

Capitalizing on his reputation as a war hero, Blair established a lucrative business securing pensions for veterans and their dependents. He served three terms in the state legislature where he actively supported improvements in public education and greater rights for women. As a lobbyist, he headed the effort to locate the new normal school in Plymouth, New Hampshire.