Cashmore's is no ordinary biography: for a start, it begins in the present and journeys back to Jackson's birth, then even deeper. Cashmore's task is to reveal Jackson in his times, specifically the post-civil rights era, when America was rebuilding and searching for someone who symbolized a new age as it struggled to unburden itself of racial inequality. Jackson was created. Cashmore explains how-and why. In the process, he uncovers the influences of Elizabeth Taylor, Whitney Houston, OJ Simpson, Elvis, Princess Diana, Madonna, Bill Cosby, Oprah, and Michael Jordan on Jackson and the world he, for a while, seemed to dominate. But, did he? Or, did it dominate him? Cashmore's provocative answer will excite and enliven debates on Jackson. This is not a book designed to comfort: it will force readers to see Jackson in a past that leaps frighteningly into the present. Book jacket.