Overview

The trading, selling, and buying of personal transport has changed little over the past one hundred years. Whether horse trading in the early twentieth century or car buying today, haggling over prices has been the common practice of buyers and sellers alike. Horse Trading in the Age of Cars offers a fascinating study of the process of buying an automobile in a historical and gendered context. Steven M. Gelber convincingly demonstrates that the combative and frequently dishonest culture of the showroom floor is a historical artifact whose origins lie in the history of horse trading. Bartering and bargaining were the norm in this predominantly male transaction, with both buyers and sellers staking their reputations and pride on their ability to negotiate the better deal. Gelber comments on this point-of-sale behavior and what it reveals about American men. Gelber's highly readable and lively prose makes clear how this unique economic ritual survived into the industrial twentieth century, in the process adding a colorful and interesting chapter to the history of the automobile.

Full Product Details

Author:   Steven M. Gelber (Department Chair, Santa Clara University)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.499kg
ISBN:  

9780801889974

ISBN 10:   0801889979
Pages:   248
Publication Date:   26 November 2008
Recommended Age:   From 17
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"Preface Introduction: The Cowboy and the Flapper 1. Horse Trading: During the Buyer Horses as Masculine Symbols The Manly Art of Horse Trading The Reputation of Horse Traders The Horse Trading Business Horse Trading as a Game The Rules of the Game Hiding Faults Warranties 2. Retailing: Satisfying the Buyer Manufactured Transportation: Carriages and Bicycles Negotiated (Discriminatory) Prices Single (Democratic) Prices Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Cheerfully Refunded 3. Cars: Joining the New Marketplace Coachmen to Chauffeurs: The Male Lineage Cars in Stores One Posted Price to All One-Price by Law Advertising List Prices 4. Used Cars: Undermining the New Marketplace Origins Trade-In Allowances and Over-Allowances Controlling Over-Allowances Cheating: ""Buyers Are Liars""—And So Are Sellers 5. The Triumph of the Price Pack: Selling the Deal Price Padding with the Pack After-Sales Packing The 1950s: "". . . for Thieves to Sell to Mental Defectives"" Advertising and Blitz Marketing Posting a Price The Great Warranty War 6. Bad Guys The Car Seller's Career: Nasty, Brutish, and Short The Sales Game: Tactics The Sales Game: Strategy Car Dealers' Reputation and Character 7. Bargaining and Gender ""The Great American Sport of Bargaining"" Brokers Cars and Masculinity Women as Buyers and Sellers Epilogue: Still Horse Trading in the Internet Age The Dealer's Cost Make Me an Offer! Notes Index"

Reviews

Combines a sophisticated history of horse trading and car dealing with a critical analysis of the way both worked... it functions both as an entertaining history and a buyers' guide, divulging trade secrets that will benefit today's consumers even as it recounts a colorful past... A sterling example of the ways in which culture and the human actors enmeshed in that culture shape economic practice. - Wendy Gamber, Indiana University

Author Information

Steven M. Gelber is a professor of history at Santa Clara University and author of Hobbies: Productive Leisure and the Culture of Work in America.

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