Overview

This work charts the reactions of prominent American writers to the unprecedented prosperity of the decades following World War II. It begins with an examination of Lewis Mumford's wartime call for democratic consumption and concludes with an analysis of the origins of Jimmy Carter's malaise speech of 1979. It documents a broad range of competing views, each in its own way reflective of a deep-seated ambivalence toward consumer culture - a persistent but shifting tension between a commitment to self-restraint and the pursuit of personal satisfaction through the acquisition of commercial goods and experiences. To explain why affluence has caused so much anxiety in America, the text focuses on key works of cultural criticism that stimulated public debate during what many have called the golden age of modern American capitalism. It examines the writings of three leading intellectuals - Daniel Bell, Robert N. Bellah, and Christopher Lasch - whose views shaped President Carter's response to the energy crisis of the 1970s

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9781558494329

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A wonderful contribution to the field of recent American intellectual history. Horowitz deftly elucidates some of the most important works of the mid-twentieth century concerned with consumer abundance and its moral and political significance. The writing is always accessible, and the whole work offers a crystal clear overview and analysis of the meanings 'affluence' had in a crucial period of the past century. - Howard Brick, author of Age of Contradiction: American Thought and Culture in the 1960s; An impressive and important book.... In a field that is sometimes flooded with abstractions, Horowitz's approach - which focuses on specific people, debates, and texts - is welcome. There has been surprisingly little scholarship on post-World War II American consumer society, and this book certainly is the most thorough that I know of. - Lawrence B. Glickman, author of A Living Wage: American Workers and the Making of Consumer Society

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