The Politics of Humiliation: A Modern History
by Ute Frevert, translated by Adam Bresnahan (OUP, £25)
The US police follow and search young black men who are wearing surgical masks to protect themselves from Covid-19. A spurned boyfriend sits in front of his computer posting graphic descriptions of sex with his former partner. A judge orders a shoplifter to stand outside a department store holding a sign saying: “I am a dirty thief.” A teacher sends a disobedient boy to the naughty step. The Jeremy Kyle Show, which was broadcast over 3,300 times between 2005 and 2019, ridicules dysfunctional families, unmarried adolescents and “love rats.” ITV only cancelled the show when one of its guests committed suicide after failing a (dubious) lie detector test that he had hoped would prove to his lover that he had “been faithful.”