A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar AmericaIn 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. From the Trade Paperback edition. |
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A CONSUMERS' REPUBLIC: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
User Review - Jane Doe - KirkusPop quiz: Patriotism involves (a) giving your life for your country; (b) flying the flag on national holidays; (c) shopping till you drop. If you answered (c), you'll be well prepared to follow this ... Read full review
A consumer's republic: the politics of mass consumption in postwar America
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictCohen, the Bancroft Prize-winning author of Creating a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939, has written a detailed study of how the mass consumption of consumer goods shaped U.S ... Read full review
Contents
RECONVERSION The Emergenceofthe Consumers?epub0 | 112 |
REBELLION Forcing Open theDoors ofPubicIccommodatons | 166 |
RESIDENCE nequalityin Mass Suburbia | 194 |
COMMERCE ReconfIguring ConiniuntyMarketplaces | 257 |
?w | 270 |
THE POLITICAL CULTURE OF MASS CONSUMPTION | 291 |
Epilogue 399 | 398 |
Acknowledgments | 537 |
Other editions - View all
A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America Lizabeth Cohen Limited preview - 2004 |
A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America Lizabeth Cohen No preview available - 2008 |
A Consumer's Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America Lizabeth Cohen No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
activists advertising African Americans Angevine benefits Bergen County Bergen Mall Bill Boycott campaign Chicago citizen consumers City Civil Rights Committee consumer movement consumerism Court Culture defined Department Store discrimination downtown economic Education Erber Esther Peterson federal first Folder Garden State Plaza GI Bill groups Housewives housing income industry inflation influence Iuly labor League lersey living luly lune Mall market segmentation marketplace mass consumption mass market middle-class Mount Laurel NAACP National Negro neighborhoods Newark Office ofthe organizations Paramus percent political population postwar President price controls profits programs protection racial Ralph Nader Report Republic Research retail segregation Shoppers shopping centers significant social spending suburban suburbia suburbs sumer television tion Union University Press urban veterans voters wartime Washington women workers working-class World World War II York
Bibliographic information
| Title | A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America |
| Author | Lizabeth Cohen |
| Publisher | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008 |
| ISBN | 0307555364, 9780307555366 |
| Length | 576 pages |
| Subjects | › › Business & Economics / Development / Economic Development History / United States / 20th Century History / United States / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |