Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America's Favorite Guilty Pleasure by Amy Kaufman
The Bachelor franchise remains immensely popular. At the time of this post, 29 seasons of The Bachelor have aired, 20 seasons of The Bachelorette have aired, and 17 seasons of various other spin-offs have aired. It is undeniably a phenomenon. Los Angeles Times journalist Amy Kaufman set out to make the first definitive cultural history of the show. One quick note is that this book came out originally in 2018, so there have been seasons of the main two shows and even new spinoffs that she does not cover. That said, Kaufman does a pretty good job expanding on a lot of what many of us fans know about the show. I wish she'd been able to get more interviews, but she clearly tried and acknowledges where contestants' and crew members' contracts have probably prevented them from saying more (or anything). I also wish Kaufman had done more to situate the franchise within the larger world of reality dating. That said, that genre has greatly expanded since this book's publicati...
