A consumer's republic : the politics of mass consumption in postwar America

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Title:

Author:

Cohen, Lizabeth.

ISBN:

9780375707377

9780375407505

Personal Author:

Cohen, Lizabeth.

Publication Information:

New York : Knopf, 2003.

Physical Description:

567 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

General Note:

Includes index.

Contents:

Pt. 1. The Origins of the Postwar Consumers' Republic. 1. Depression: Rise of the Citizen Consumer. 2. War: Citizen Consumers Do Battle on the Home Front -- Pt. 2. The Birth of the Consumers' Republic. 3. Reconversion: The Emergence of the Consumers' 'Republic. 4. Rebellion: Forcing Open the Doors of Public Accommodations -- Pt. 3. The Landscape of Mass Consumption. 5. Residence: Inequality in Mass Suburbia. 6. Commerce: Reconfiguring Community Marketplaces -- Pt. 4. The Political Culture of Mass Consumption. 7. Culture: Segmenting the Mass. 8. Politics: Purchasers Politicized.

Subject Term:

Consumption (Economics) -- United States.

Consumer behavior -- United States.

Geographic Term:

United States -- Social conditions -- 1980-

Electronic Access:

Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/random044/2002141599.html

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168015736842	339.470973 C678C 2003	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

In this signal work of history, Bancroft Prize winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lizabeth Cohen shows how the pursuit of prosperity after World War II fueled our pervasive consumer mentality and transformed American life.

Trumpeted as a means to promote the general welfare, mass consumption quickly outgrew its economic objectives and became synonymous with patriotism, social equality, and the American Dream. Material goods came to embody the promise of America, and the power of consumers to purchase everything from vacuum cleaners to convertibles gave rise to the power of citizens to purchase political influence and effect social change. Yet despite undeniable successes and unprecedented affluence, mass consumption also fostered economic inequality and the fracturing of society along gender, class, and racial lines. In charting the complex legacy of our "Consumers' Republic" Lizabeth Cohen has written a bold, encompassing, and profoundly influential book.