Good gossip /

These 15 articles by 22 authors on the moral, epistemological, social, and psychological functions of gossip, although written from a number of different perspectives, all address "the question of whether gossip is a good or bad thing," with the general aim of raising our appreciation for the positive aspects of gossip. The book has three sections: the first deals with the moral issues surrounding gossip; the second attempts to understand how gossip transmits knowledge and why this mode of transmission might be both trustworthy and socially efficacious; the third is a set of empirical studies on the social and psychological functioning of gossip. Some of the articles explore gossip as a woman's mode of discourse and understand its general devaluation to be from a patriarchal perspective. In sum, this is an important examination of a significant mode of social discourse and an attempt to reorient our evaluation of that discourse. Recommended for undergraduate libraries, but appropriate for graduate students also.