Authority and American Autobiographies

Craig Fehrman has a piece up at Vox on the changing trends in American life-writing. Part way through Fehrman makes an interesting observation on authority: In the first half of the 19th century only the clergy and criminals published autobiographies. 

One group had divine authority to tell their life stories. The other had nothing left to lose.

His essay ends by celebrating digital media as enabling a democratization of life-stories with Instagram et al representing a broader shift of authority from the nexus of the state and civic status to the personal realm. One might even think of this near century long turn as a great recommission of private meaning, one in which things of a private nature could be recast as being of public relevance, bringing with it accountability, justification, explanation, and special pleading. These are all the kinds of exchanges that come with the giving and taking of reasons along with the implicit knowledge that one might be found wanting by ones peers. 

This brings to mind a question about whether there will many autobiographies that comes from the Trump White House. In the last few years there was no shortage of Obamacrats writing their stories. (Corey Robin has an excellent review on these.) Sure they wanted acclaim and cash, even to control the narrative. But in line with the aforementioned shift in authority, some of it was the effort to justify oneself. 

Conversely there have been so many resignations during Trump's administration and while there have been many leaks to journalists, no one to my mind has publicly put pen to paper. Maybe that might happen if Trump is thoroughly defeated and his apparatchiks will have to try rejoin the public by re-framing their actions. 

I suppose what I am getting at is any coming decline in autobiographies from state officials is another good indicator of further American de-democratization. Because why would one seek to account if there was no belief that account was even necessary, that all actions were authorized for no other reason that they were issued by the executive, that these officials believe they have no public peers.