steve: carolee klimchock, an independent scholar, graduate of yale university, living in texas, in your panel today, an interestin

steve: carolee klimchock, an independent scholar, graduate of yale university, living in texas, in your panel today, an interesting title. "romance, reverence and renegades: scandals in the gilded age of history." so explain what this is all about. carolee: well, it was writing different scandals. one of them that connected well to mine was one that had to do with a reverend scandal area mine was heiresses and coachmen, but it is not just -- we were like, why study scandals? what do we see? it is not just what you think of the moment of immorality or something people are outraged by. but actually i sort of think of scandal more like something we can look at historically, where people are having changing views about something, where some people are outraged, others are curious, others are practicing this scandalous behavior, whatever it might be, and so it sort of is, what i like to call, a social hotspot in culture. studying scandals sort of brings us into something that we may not otherwise look at. it is easy to overlook something that sort of seems like it might be trashy gossip. but