The three-ring circus aspect of modern life had to start somewhere. All the hustle and bustle that fills our days—the social-media imperative to create a persona and tirelessly promote it, the confusing welter of information both legitimate and illegitimate to which we are exposed, the naked power of advertising to create desires in us we didn't know we had—cannot be traced to a single source. But some people are more responsible than others.
A good place to start is with the most famous promoter of the actual three-ring circus, Phineas Taylor Barnum. Born in 1810, Barnum understood from the age of 21, when he started a newspaper in his native Connecticut and put his name at the top of the front page, that making his name a brand would greatly enhance his ability to influence the world around him. The paper lasted only a few years, and one of the outrageous charges he made in it landed him in jail. But even that supposed setback added to his celebrity and his newspaper's sales.
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