Synopses & Reviews
Charlie Campbell highlights the plight of all those others who have found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, illustrating how God needs the Devil as Sherlock Holmes needs Professor Moriarty or James Bond needs "Goldfinger." Scapegoat is a tale of human foolishness that exposes the anger and irrationality of blame-mongering while reminding readers of their own capacity for it. From medieval witch burning to reality TV, this is a brilliantly relevant and timely social history that looks at the obsession, mania, persecution and injustice of scapegoating.
Review
"A wry, entertaining study of the history of blame.Trenchantly sardonic." --Kirkus Reviews
Review
"The book gives a great deal of insight without plowing through tedious jargon. It does more than give us good water cooler or dinner conversational tidbits--it makes us stop and examine our all-too-human but non-productive tendency to find someone or something to blame." --Saturday Evening Post
Review
null --Library Journal
Review
"It all started with Eve, Charlie Campbell astutely notes in his alternately amusing and dismaying history of blaming the other guy (or gal)." --Globe and Mail
Synopsis
We may have come a long way from the days when a goat as a symbol was saddled with all the iniquities of the children of Israel and driven into the wilderness, but is our desperate need to find some organization or person to pin the blame on and absolve ourselves of responsibility really any more advanced?
About the Author
Charlie Campbell was Deputy Editor of the Literary Review, where he ran the Bad Sex Fiction Prize among other things.