Overview

This startlingly original and highly readable volume adds a new richness and depth to an element of U.S. history that is all too often taken for granted. In American Consumer Society, Regina Lee Blaszczyk examines the emergence of consumerism in the Victorian era, and, in tracing its evolution over the next 140 years, shows how the emergence of a mass market was followed by its fragmentation. Niche marketing focused on successive waves of new consumers as each made its presence known: Irish immigrants, urban African Americans, teenagers, computer geeks, and soccer moms, to name but a few. Blaszczyk demonstrates that middle-class consumerism is an intrinsic part of American identity, but exactly how consumerism reflected that identity changed over time. Initially driven to imitate those who had already achieved success, Americans eventually began to use their purchases to express themselves. This led to a fundamental change in American culture—one in which the American reverence for things was replaced by a passion for experiences. New Millennium families no longer treasured exquisite china or dress in fine clothes, but they’ll spare no expense on being able to make phone calls, retrieve emails, watch ESPN, or visit web sites at any place, any time. Victorian mothers just wouldn’t understand. Using materials and techniques from business history, art history, anthropology, sociology, material culture, and good story-telling, this lavishly illustrated and highly thoughtful narrative offers a compelling re-interpretation of American culture through the lens of consumerism, making it perfect for use not only as supplementary reading in the U.S. survey, but also for a variety of courses in Business, Culture, Economics, Marketing, and Fashion and Design history.

Full Product Details

Author:   Regina Lee Blaszczyk (University of Pennsylvania)
Publisher:   John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Imprint:   Wiley-Blackwell
Dimensions:   Width: 13.70cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 20.30cm
Weight:   0.418kg
ISBN:  

9780882952642

ISBN 10:   0882952641
Pages:   330
Publication Date:   01 December 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii Introduction 1 Shopping for a Perfect Self 1 The Passion for Possessions 2 Dissonant Voices 3 Treasures and Throwaways 4 From KnickKnacks to Kickin’ Back 5 Part One 7 Victorian America, 1865-1900 8 Victorians, Hierarchy, and Progress 8 Early European Antecedents 10 Opportunities for Display 11 1876 Centennial Exposition, the Industrial Cornucopia 14 The Allure of Cities 16 The Rise of the New Middle Class 18 Labor’s Consumerist Turn 20 Buying American or Pursuing Empire? 22 Advertising Abundance 23 Chapter One Home, Sweet Home 28 Separate Spheres 29 Dreams of Home Ownership 31 Womanly Creativity and the Art Craze 35 The Victorian Parlor 38 “Making Do” 40 Toward Modern Simplicity: The Bungalow and the Living Room 43 Martha Stewart Revisited 49 Chapter Two: Dress Codes 51 Fashion and Social Identity 53 Ready-to-Wear and the Democratization of Clothing 54 The Clothes Make the Man: Dark Suits and White Collars 56 Corsets and the Hourglass Shape 60 The Art of Dressmaking 61 The Easter Parade 64 Stepping Out with the Gibson Girl and Arrow Man 67 Why Fashion Mattered 70 Chapter Three New Ways to Shop 73 Dry-Goods Emporiums 74 Department Stores as “Palaces of Consumption” 76 John Wanamaker’s Luxury Department Store 77 Five-and-Tens 79 Window Shopping 82 Mail-Order Catalogs 84 Old-Fashioned Retailers 90 Tiffany Tastes and a Woolworth’s Pocketbook 91 Part Two: Modern America, 1900-1945 94 The New Tempo 95 From the Standard of Living to the American Dream 99 Middletown, U.S.A.: Average America 101 The Modern Identity Kit 102 Resetting the Stage, Hollywood Style 104 Down and Out 107 Purchasing Power and the New Deal 110 Patriotic Consumers at War 112 Chapter Four Mr. Advertiser Meets Mrs. Consumer 116 National Magazines, National Brands 116 Ladies’ Home Journal, the Bible of the American Home 118 Selling Soap, or Selling Sex? 120 The Colonel’s Lady and Judy O’ Grady 123 Images of the Good Life 125 Discovering Boys and Girls 128 The Power of Marketing 130 Advertising Overload 132 Forging the American Way 133 Chapter Five Sensing a Wider World 137 Bicycles, Cameras, and the Great Outdoors 137 Giving a Human Face to Electricity 139 The Phonograph in the Parlor 140 Radio, the Electronic Hearth 145 The Jazz Age Radio Craze 148 The Electric Twenties 152 The Golden Age of Radio 154 Creating Unity amid Diversity 156 Chapter Six Designing the Auto Age 159 Automobility and the Pursuit of Pleasure 160 “The Proper Thing for a Man of Wealth”: Motor Racing and Car Collecting 162 Ford’s Model T, The Car for the Common Man 164 GM and the “Car for Every Purse and Purpose” 168 Design Wars 170 Buy Now, Pay Later 172 The Paradox of the Auto Boom 174 Streamlining the Great Depression 175 Imaging the Future 176 Part Three 179 Boomer America, 1945-2005 180 Populuxe Push-Button Technology 182 Keeping Away from the Joneses 185 Plastics Triumphant 187 Fallout of Affluence 188 Rediscovering Diversity 190 The Global Village of Goods 192 Brands as Experience 194 The New Mainstream 195 Chapter Seven Destination Suburbia 198 America Moves from City to Suburb 199 “We Got a Piece of the American Dream”: Levittown, New York 201 Blue-Collar Aesthetics, Appliances, and Automobiles 204 Mall Culture 206 Making Ends Meet 210 Edge Cities and Big-Box Retailers 211 Chapter Eight Casual Style 215 The Mamie Look 215 Rebels, Teens, and Beatniks 217 Youth Quake 219 The Me Generation 223 Celebrity Style, Yuppie Tastes 226 Polo Meets Hip-Hop 228 Chapter Nine Electronics “R” Us 232 Information Snacking 232 The Year of Consumer Electronics: 1948 233 TV in the Fifties 234 Radio, Records, and High-Fidelity 238 Tape It! 244 Video Games: New Devices and Desires 247 Personal Computers before the Internet 249 Connecting to the Internet 251 Cable Television 255 Everything is Digital 258 Hardware to Software, Hearth to HDTV 262 Conclusion264 Who We Are 264 Seven Big Themes 265 Bibliographical Essay 276 Acknowledgements 305 Index 309 Photographs follow pages 92, 178, and 275

Reviews

[ American Consumer Society ] is a clearly written, well-illustrated exploration of American consumerism, attentive to the need to define terms and make cultural references appropriate for college students today. This book draws on essential and revealing statistics and offers memorable stories to drive home themes. ...Blaszczyk does more than survey her topic. She offers original research from her scholarship on the history of design, advertising, and fashion...whatever your view, you will find this book a gold mine of information and analysis, and an example of just good writing. (Harvard Business School Business History Review, Winter 2009)

[American Consumer Society] is a clearly written, well-illustrated exploration of American consumerism, attentive to the need to define terms and make cultural references appropriate for college students today. This book draws on essential and revealing statistics and offers memorable stories to drive home themes. ...Blaszczyk does more than survey her topic. She offers original research from her scholarship on the history of design, advertising, and fashion...whatever your view, you will find this book a gold mine of information and analysis, and an example of just good writing. (Harvard Business School Business History Review, Winter 2009)

[ American Consumer Society ] is a clearly written, well-illustrated exploration of American consumerism, attentive to the need to define terms and make cultural references appropriate for college students today. This book draws on essential and revealing statistics and offers memorable stories to drive home themes. ...Blaszczyk does more than survey her topic. She offers original research from her scholarship on the history of design, advertising, and fashion...whatever your view, you will find this book a gold mine of information and analysis, and an example of just good writing. (Harvard Business School Business History Review , Winter 2009)

Author Information

Reginal Lee Blaszczyk, Visiting Scholar in the Department of the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, received a B.A. from Marlboro College, an M.A. from George Washington University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Hagley Program at the University of Delaware. A specialist in the history of capitalism and consumer culture, Blaszczyk has published numerous books, articles, and reviews. Her first book, Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning (2000), received the Hagley Prize for the Best Book in Business History for 2001, and her co-edited reader, Major Problems in American Business History; Documents and Essays (2006), is widely used in courses on American capitalism. Partners in Innovation: Science Education and the Science Workforce (edited; 2005) considers the skills needed to compete in the global business environment, while Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers (edited; 2008) suggests new approaches to the history of fashion, business, and consumer culture. Blaszczyk has received fellowships from Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies n American History, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Chemical Heritage Foundation. She has taught at Boston University, Rutgers University-Camden, the University of Delaware, and the University of Pennsylvania, and spent eleven years as a cultural history curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. In 2008, she received the Harold F. Williamson Prize in Business History for mid-career achievement from the Business History Conference, the largest international association of business historians.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions