Americans love to talk about 'greatness.' In this book, Zev Eleff explores the phenomenon of 'greatness' culture and what Americans really mean when they talk about greatness. Greatness discourse provides a uniquely American language for participants to discuss their 'ideal' aspirational values and make meaning of their personal lives. The many incarnations and insinuations of 'greatness' suggest more about those carrying on the conversation than they do about those being discussed. An argument for Abraham Lincoln or Franklin D. Roosevelt over George Washington as America's greatest statesman says as much about the speaker as it does about the legacies of former US presidents. Making a case for the Beatles, Michael Jordan, or Mickey Mouse involves the prioritization of politics and perspectives. The persistence of Henry Ford as a great American despite his toxic antisemitism offers another layer to this historical phenomenon. Using a variety of compelling examples, Eleff sheds new new light on “greatness” and its place in American culture.

'This book offers a fascinating tour of Americans’ changing ideas about what constitutes greatness and, in particular, who warrants the designation ‘greatest of all time.’ Our culture continually promotes, idolizes, and eventually discounts and devalues accomplishments, as once-celebrated reputations confront shifts in what we value - and who and what we think should be honored. Arguments about who deserves to be considered the greatest will never be the same.'

Joel Best - Emeritus Professor at the University of Delaware, and author of Everyone’s a Winner: Life in Our Congratulatory Culture

'This is high quality scholarship. Eleff has identified a uniquely American, heretofore understudied fixation and analyzed it with insight and rigor. We can take a great deal of intellectual pleasure in this superb book.'

Seth Jacobs - author of Rogue Diplomats: The Proud Tradition of Disobedience in American Foreign Policy

‘… this book is extremely well written in modern, accessible, lively prose. There is, in addition, much detail and intelligent reflection on the fluctuating biographies of many famous American luminaries and contrasting between them is a very effective way to demonstrate difference. The book helps to open a door to understand the vagaries and changeability of many words and phrases that are often taken for granted as static and immovable. The book therefore holds value in what it suggests. In so doing the work causes one to think more about the mutable nature of America in relation to these concepts.’

Kit Candlin Source: Society for U.S. Intellectual History

‘Taken as a whole, The Greatest of All Time offers an engaging historical narrative with fascinating vignettes and details. For readers broadly knowledgeable about the contours of American history, this is a fun book to read. … it does provide an intriguing narrative that can help us think more deeply about the conceptions of greatness our culture embraces - and the better versions we might promote in our own communities.’

Paul Putz Source: Christianity Today

‘This lively and enjoyable volume provides case studies that explore the values and the dilemmas of American celebrity culture. … [Eleff] demonstrates persuasively that celebrities have shaped our contentious reputational politics from the dawn of the twentieth century. If not theoretically dense, Eleff’s rich accounts make for that category of writing that might best be embraced as sociological beach reading.’

Gary Alan Fine Source: Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews