Consumer Society in American History - by Lawrence B Glickman (Paperback)

About the Book

This volume offers the most comprehensive and incisive exploration of American consumer history to date, spanning the four centuries from the colonial era to the present.

Book Synopsis

Consumption has often been called America's true national pastime. From the earliest European explorers trading with Native Americans to today's Internet shoppers, consumerism has driven American society. Until recent years, however, consumerism has received little serious attention from historians and other scholars.

This welcome volume offers the most comprehensive and incisive exploration of American consumer history to date. The first book on this topic to span the four centuries from the colonial era to the present, and the first to propose theoretical frameworks, the volume brings consumer society to the center of American history. Indeed, its authors demonstrate the many ways their research enhances knowledge of a broad range of historical topics, such as politics, labor ideology, immigrant life, and race, gender, and class relations. By including types of consumer studies which are seldom linked, this volume offers both a basis for historical synthesis and a springboard for further inquiry.

With contributions by Raymond Williams, Jean Baudrillard, Juliet B. Schor, Kim Moody, Jean-Christophe Agnew, and many others, plus the most comprehensive bibliographical essay ever produced on the historiography of American consumption, Consumer Society in American History will take its place as the definitive sourcebook for this emerging field.

Review Quotes

The anthology presents a highly engaging sample of divergent viewpoints.... The strengths of the anthology are in the analytical breadth of its essays..

The book mixes the agenda-setting works of established historians and cultural critics... with case studies provided by younger scholars... and historians not usually associated with works on consumption... as well as statements made on the nature of consumerism by journalists and activists.... Glickman has provided a group of essays potentially more representative of future explorations into consumer society.... His book will be an extremely useful introduction to the current research on consumer history.

This thoughtful and solidly documented collection looks at consumption with an eye both to the past and to the world... Comprising 24 excellently chosen selections... the book enables the reader to see both how consumption changed over time, and how the analysis of consumption has changed over time.

About the Author

Lawrence B. Glickman is Associate Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and the author of A Living Wage: American Workers and the Making of Consumer Society, also from Cornell.