Maxine Berg
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199215287
- eISBN:
- 9780191695933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215287.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
Developing markets abroad was crucial to the success of new consumer goods. This was achieved by aggressively making British commodities fashionable, a form of branding with British national ...
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Developing markets abroad was crucial to the success of new consumer goods. This was achieved by aggressively making British commodities fashionable, a form of branding with British national identity. The new goods were endowed with a British style, and this style was sold abroad. British goods dominated the consumer cultures of the American and Caribbean colonies. Consumers in Europe, enthusiastic in the first three-quarters of the 18th century, were thwarted in the later parts of the century by high tariff barriers, war, and blockades. But the taste for English goods was well entrenched; the goods were imitated in their turn. The large middling-class markets at home and in the American colonies combined with Britain's advanced technologies to give those British goods the edge in Europe as well, as soon as trade barriers were relaxed in the years following the Napoleonic Wars.Less
Developing markets abroad was crucial to the success of new consumer goods. This was achieved by aggressively making British commodities fashionable, a form of branding with British national identity. The new goods were endowed with a British style, and this style was sold abroad. British goods dominated the consumer cultures of the American and Caribbean colonies. Consumers in Europe, enthusiastic in the first three-quarters of the 18th century, were thwarted in the later parts of the century by high tariff barriers, war, and blockades. But the taste for English goods was well entrenched; the goods were imitated in their turn. The large middling-class markets at home and in the American colonies combined with Britain's advanced technologies to give those British goods the edge in Europe as well, as soon as trade barriers were relaxed in the years following the Napoleonic Wars.
Erik Dussere
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199969913
- eISBN:
- 9780199369027
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199969913.003.0000
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The introduction is divided into two parts. The first part, “Authenticity Effects,” explains and defines the central terms that I am using—authenticity, noir, consumer culture, and American ...
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The introduction is divided into two parts. The first part, “Authenticity Effects,” explains and defines the central terms that I am using—authenticity, noir, consumer culture, and American (national) identity. I discuss the particular versions of these terms that I will be using, as well as the relationships between them, all of which is necessary in order to describe the shape of the argument I will be making. In the second part, “Out of the Past, into the Supermarket,” I examine commercial spaces as representatives of postwar American consumer culture, taking the supermarket as an emblematic example. Then I bring all these threads together in a reading of three supermarket scenes in the noir tradition that recreates in miniature the evolution described throughout the course of the book.Less
The introduction is divided into two parts. The first part, “Authenticity Effects,” explains and defines the central terms that I am using—authenticity, noir, consumer culture, and American (national) identity. I discuss the particular versions of these terms that I will be using, as well as the relationships between them, all of which is necessary in order to describe the shape of the argument I will be making. In the second part, “Out of the Past, into the Supermarket,” I examine commercial spaces as representatives of postwar American consumer culture, taking the supermarket as an emblematic example. Then I bring all these threads together in a reading of three supermarket scenes in the noir tradition that recreates in miniature the evolution described throughout the course of the book.
Amy Johnson Frykholm
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195159837
- eISBN:
- 9780199835614
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195159837.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Examines the history of the idea of the rapture in American Protestantism and argues that belief in the rapture, although it has fundamentalist origins, needs to be understood as a much broader ...
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Examines the history of the idea of the rapture in American Protestantism and argues that belief in the rapture, although it has fundamentalist origins, needs to be understood as a much broader social movement and a much more integrated part of American culture. Looks briefly at the apocalyptic context of American culture and then at the more specific history of rapture belief and dispensationalism in the United States. Argues that readers of the Left Behind series no longer see themselves as intimately connected to fundamentalist belief but instead seek to integrate the rapture into a broader religious context. Similarly, the texts of the novels themselves do not so much condemn and dismiss contemporary culture as they seek negotiation with it, particularly in the roles of technology, consumer culture, and gender in society. The formulation of evangelicalism represented in the books is a significant departure from previous religious apocalyptic fiction.Less
Examines the history of the idea of the rapture in American Protestantism and argues that belief in the rapture, although it has fundamentalist origins, needs to be understood as a much broader social movement and a much more integrated part of American culture. Looks briefly at the apocalyptic context of American culture and then at the more specific history of rapture belief and dispensationalism in the United States. Argues that readers of the Left Behind series no longer see themselves as intimately connected to fundamentalist belief but instead seek to integrate the rapture into a broader religious context. Similarly, the texts of the novels themselves do not so much condemn and dismiss contemporary culture as they seek negotiation with it, particularly in the roles of technology, consumer culture, and gender in society. The formulation of evangelicalism represented in the books is a significant departure from previous religious apocalyptic fiction.
Patrick Hyder Patterson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199827657
- eISBN:
- 9780199950461
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199827657.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Cultural History
Various features of consumer culture under East European communism—such as advertising and marketing—provoked long-lasting, heated, and rancorous internal debate. In contrast, the communist regimes ...
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Various features of consumer culture under East European communism—such as advertising and marketing—provoked long-lasting, heated, and rancorous internal debate. In contrast, the communist regimes viewed the establishment of large-scale retailing venues as largely unproblematic. Socialist planners and policymakers tended to treat the department store as simply a “system-neutral” form that could proliferate across socialist society with little or no threat to the political, economic, and cultural commitments of socialism. Looking at four of the most prosperous, consumer-oriented communist countries (the GDR, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia), Patrick Hyder Patterson demonstrates how the department store phenomenon played out in the socialist context: how the desires that were unleashed and the cultural values that were sustained through the use of the department store form in the end proved difficult to reconcile with the political goals of socialism and were thus subversive of communist control. This, in turn, Patterson argues, forces us to reconceptualize the nature of consumption and sales in the modern grand emporium, and to question what is truly “socialist” about commercial practices “under socialism” and, in the same vein, what is “capitalist” about commercial practices “under capitalism.”Less
Various features of consumer culture under East European communism—such as advertising and marketing—provoked long-lasting, heated, and rancorous internal debate. In contrast, the communist regimes viewed the establishment of large-scale retailing venues as largely unproblematic. Socialist planners and policymakers tended to treat the department store as simply a “system-neutral” form that could proliferate across socialist society with little or no threat to the political, economic, and cultural commitments of socialism. Looking at four of the most prosperous, consumer-oriented communist countries (the GDR, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia), Patrick Hyder Patterson demonstrates how the department store phenomenon played out in the socialist context: how the desires that were unleashed and the cultural values that were sustained through the use of the department store form in the end proved difficult to reconcile with the political goals of socialism and were thus subversive of communist control. This, in turn, Patterson argues, forces us to reconceptualize the nature of consumption and sales in the modern grand emporium, and to question what is truly “socialist” about commercial practices “under socialism” and, in the same vein, what is “capitalist” about commercial practices “under capitalism.”
Ian Rees Jones
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861348821
- eISBN:
- 9781447301431
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861348821.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gerontology and Ageing
Targeted as ‘grey consumers’, people retiring now participated in the creation of the post-war consumer culture. These consumers have grown older, but have not stopped consuming. Based on extensive ...
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Targeted as ‘grey consumers’, people retiring now participated in the creation of the post-war consumer culture. These consumers have grown older, but have not stopped consuming. Based on extensive analysis over two years, this book examines the engagement of older people with consumer society in Britain since the 1960s. It charts the changes in the experience of later life in the UK over the last fifty years, the rise of the ‘individualised consumer citizen’ and what this means for health and social policies.Less
Targeted as ‘grey consumers’, people retiring now participated in the creation of the post-war consumer culture. These consumers have grown older, but have not stopped consuming. Based on extensive analysis over two years, this book examines the engagement of older people with consumer society in Britain since the 1960s. It charts the changes in the experience of later life in the UK over the last fifty years, the rise of the ‘individualised consumer citizen’ and what this means for health and social policies.
Simone Cinotto (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823256235
- eISBN:
- 9780823261741
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823256235.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
Exploring Italian American consumers and the U.S. consumption of Italianness, Making Italian America makes a compelling case for taste as a leading determinant of ethnic identity. Discussing in fresh ...
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Exploring Italian American consumers and the U.S. consumption of Italianness, Making Italian America makes a compelling case for taste as a leading determinant of ethnic identity. Discussing in fresh ways topics as diverse as immigrant women’s fashion, critiques of consumerism in Italian immigrant radicalism, the Cold-War politics of consumption across the Atlantic, the Italian American influence in early rock ‘n’ roll, ethnic tourism in Little Italy, Guido subculture, film, sports, and bodybuilding, Making Italian America recasts Italian immigrants and their children as active consumers who, since the turn of the twentieth century, have creatively managed to articulate relations of race, gender, and class and create distinctive lifestyles out of materials the marketplace offered to them. Grounded in the new scholarship in transnational U.S. history and the transfer of cultural patterns, fourteen essays explore Italian American history in the light of consumer culture, across more than a century-long intense movement of people, goods, money, ideas, and images between Italy and the United States—a diasporic exchange that has transformed both nations. In the introduction, Simone Cinotto builds an imaginative analytical framework for understanding the ways in which ethnic and racial groups have shaped their collective identities and negotiated their place in the consumers’ emporium and marketplace. Making Italian America appraises how immigrants and their children forged their identities, material cultures and lifestyles, redesigned the market to suit their tastes, and in the process made Italian American identities—incorporated in commodities, commercial leisure, and popular representations—the object of desire for millions of American and global consumers.Less
Exploring Italian American consumers and the U.S. consumption of Italianness, Making Italian America makes a compelling case for taste as a leading determinant of ethnic identity. Discussing in fresh ways topics as diverse as immigrant women’s fashion, critiques of consumerism in Italian immigrant radicalism, the Cold-War politics of consumption across the Atlantic, the Italian American influence in early rock ‘n’ roll, ethnic tourism in Little Italy, Guido subculture, film, sports, and bodybuilding, Making Italian America recasts Italian immigrants and their children as active consumers who, since the turn of the twentieth century, have creatively managed to articulate relations of race, gender, and class and create distinctive lifestyles out of materials the marketplace offered to them. Grounded in the new scholarship in transnational U.S. history and the transfer of cultural patterns, fourteen essays explore Italian American history in the light of consumer culture, across more than a century-long intense movement of people, goods, money, ideas, and images between Italy and the United States—a diasporic exchange that has transformed both nations. In the introduction, Simone Cinotto builds an imaginative analytical framework for understanding the ways in which ethnic and racial groups have shaped their collective identities and negotiated their place in the consumers’ emporium and marketplace. Making Italian America appraises how immigrants and their children forged their identities, material cultures and lifestyles, redesigned the market to suit their tastes, and in the process made Italian American identities—incorporated in commodities, commercial leisure, and popular representations—the object of desire for millions of American and global consumers.
Detlev Zwick and Julien Cayla
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199576746
- eISBN:
- 9780191724916
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199576746.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Marketing
In comparison to the impressive amount of resources, time, and energy going into researching the inner life of consumers, a rather minor effort has been made to study the growing army of economic ...
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In comparison to the impressive amount of resources, time, and energy going into researching the inner life of consumers, a rather minor effort has been made to study the growing army of economic actors whose work it is to define markets and give shape to the consumer culture as we know it. Furthermore, the results of the work that marketers do are, by definition, highly visible. Indeed, we would suggest that making things visible (in the sense of bringing forward and rendering meaningful and recognizable) through, for example, product design, packaging, display strategies, commercial architecture, branding, advertising, and promotional activities is the raison d'être of marketing. Yet, the visibility of marketing activities contrasts with the relative obscurity of the inner workings of the marketing profession. Indeed, little scholarly work has been directed at investigating the practices, ideologies, and devices of marketing professionals and how “marketing work” is enacted in organizational contexts. This book brings together leading social scientists and business scholars to deliver a systematic attempt to theorize contemporary marketing from the inside out.Less
In comparison to the impressive amount of resources, time, and energy going into researching the inner life of consumers, a rather minor effort has been made to study the growing army of economic actors whose work it is to define markets and give shape to the consumer culture as we know it. Furthermore, the results of the work that marketers do are, by definition, highly visible. Indeed, we would suggest that making things visible (in the sense of bringing forward and rendering meaningful and recognizable) through, for example, product design, packaging, display strategies, commercial architecture, branding, advertising, and promotional activities is the raison d'être of marketing. Yet, the visibility of marketing activities contrasts with the relative obscurity of the inner workings of the marketing profession. Indeed, little scholarly work has been directed at investigating the practices, ideologies, and devices of marketing professionals and how “marketing work” is enacted in organizational contexts. This book brings together leading social scientists and business scholars to deliver a systematic attempt to theorize contemporary marketing from the inside out.
Patrick Hyder Patterson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450044
- eISBN:
- 9780801463631
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450044.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter examines the mainstream Marxist critique of the contradictions of consumerism in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was heading toward the creation of a capitalist-style “consumer society” by the ...
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This chapter examines the mainstream Marxist critique of the contradictions of consumerism in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was heading toward the creation of a capitalist-style “consumer society” by the late 1960s. However, the move toward consumerism did not go unchallenged. Instead, consumer culture and the advertising and marketing that propelled it encountered, early on, staunch and ardent resistance. This chapter considers the place of Marxism in issues surrounding commercial promotion and its role in fashioning popular culture. In particular, it analyzes the arguments of Marxist social critics that consumerism and market culture were among the most important “internal enemies” of Yugoslav socialism. It also discusses Marxist criticisms of the so-called Homo consumens and critics' sustained rhetorical campaign against consumerism. It shows that Yugoslavia's distinctive consumer culture and the commercial promotion that sustained it gave rise to a different sort of egalitarianism based on participation in a new Yugoslav Dream, one rooted in consumption.Less
This chapter examines the mainstream Marxist critique of the contradictions of consumerism in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was heading toward the creation of a capitalist-style “consumer society” by the late 1960s. However, the move toward consumerism did not go unchallenged. Instead, consumer culture and the advertising and marketing that propelled it encountered, early on, staunch and ardent resistance. This chapter considers the place of Marxism in issues surrounding commercial promotion and its role in fashioning popular culture. In particular, it analyzes the arguments of Marxist social critics that consumerism and market culture were among the most important “internal enemies” of Yugoslav socialism. It also discusses Marxist criticisms of the so-called Homo consumens and critics' sustained rhetorical campaign against consumerism. It shows that Yugoslavia's distinctive consumer culture and the commercial promotion that sustained it gave rise to a different sort of egalitarianism based on participation in a new Yugoslav Dream, one rooted in consumption.
Kenneth Dyson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198714071
- eISBN:
- 9780191782558
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198714071.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
This chapter considers the importance of economic culture and associated ideologies of debt in shaping different images of state virtue. It shows the role that debt has played in identity formation ...
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This chapter considers the importance of economic culture and associated ideologies of debt in shaping different images of state virtue. It shows the role that debt has played in identity formation and in the construction of historical memory. The chapter goes on to analyse the main types of economic culture, debt ideology, and state virtue: the culture of elite magnificence; stability culture; consumer culture; social welfare culture; and welfare protection culture. Historical examples are provided, ranging from Imperial Rome and the Renaissance courts, through the United Provinces and the German Bundesbank, to modern Greece and Italy. Each type is shown to be associated with its own distinctive illusions, hubris, and complacency. The chapter concludes by considering the implications of such a variety of economic cultures and debt ideologies for European integration, the euro area, and Optimum Currency Area theory.Less
This chapter considers the importance of economic culture and associated ideologies of debt in shaping different images of state virtue. It shows the role that debt has played in identity formation and in the construction of historical memory. The chapter goes on to analyse the main types of economic culture, debt ideology, and state virtue: the culture of elite magnificence; stability culture; consumer culture; social welfare culture; and welfare protection culture. Historical examples are provided, ranging from Imperial Rome and the Renaissance courts, through the United Provinces and the German Bundesbank, to modern Greece and Italy. Each type is shown to be associated with its own distinctive illusions, hubris, and complacency. The chapter concludes by considering the implications of such a variety of economic cultures and debt ideologies for European integration, the euro area, and Optimum Currency Area theory.
Charles F. McGovern
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807830338
- eISBN:
- 9781469606040
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807876640_mcgovern
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
At the turn of the twentieth century, an emerging consumer culture in the United States promoted constant spending to meet material needs and develop social identity and self-cultivation. This book ...
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At the turn of the twentieth century, an emerging consumer culture in the United States promoted constant spending to meet material needs and develop social identity and self-cultivation. This book examines the key players who are active in shaping this cultural evolution: advertisers and consumer advocates. It argues that even though these two professional groups invented radically different models for proper spending, both groups propagated mass consumption as a specifically American social practice and an important element of nationality and citizenship. Advertisers, the book shows, used nationalist ideals, icons, and political language to define consumption as the foundation of the pursuit of happiness. Consumer advocates, on the other hand, viewed the market with a republican-inspired skepticism and fought commercial incursions on consumer independence. The result, it argues, was a redefinition of the citizen as consumer. The articulation of an “American Way of Life” in the Depression and World War II ratified consumer abundance as the basis of a distinct American culture and history.Less
At the turn of the twentieth century, an emerging consumer culture in the United States promoted constant spending to meet material needs and develop social identity and self-cultivation. This book examines the key players who are active in shaping this cultural evolution: advertisers and consumer advocates. It argues that even though these two professional groups invented radically different models for proper spending, both groups propagated mass consumption as a specifically American social practice and an important element of nationality and citizenship. Advertisers, the book shows, used nationalist ideals, icons, and political language to define consumption as the foundation of the pursuit of happiness. Consumer advocates, on the other hand, viewed the market with a republican-inspired skepticism and fought commercial incursions on consumer independence. The result, it argues, was a redefinition of the citizen as consumer. The articulation of an “American Way of Life” in the Depression and World War II ratified consumer abundance as the basis of a distinct American culture and history.
Regina Grafe
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691144849
- eISBN:
- 9781400840533
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691144849.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter uses bacalao instead of grain in understanding market integration and its link with the political economy, analyzing the emerging cod trade in more detail and contextualizing the cod ...
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This chapter uses bacalao instead of grain in understanding market integration and its link with the political economy, analyzing the emerging cod trade in more detail and contextualizing the cod market within the frame of the new Atlantic trades. These were transoceanic in origin, and they brought about a new, global economy; but they also transformed in their course the domestic economies and societies of Europe. The rise of these transoceanic goods to staple commodities in European countries has offered historians a unique opportunity to investigate the emergence of the early stages of a “consumer culture” in Europe and the expansion of markets that accompanied it.Less
This chapter uses bacalao instead of grain in understanding market integration and its link with the political economy, analyzing the emerging cod trade in more detail and contextualizing the cod market within the frame of the new Atlantic trades. These were transoceanic in origin, and they brought about a new, global economy; but they also transformed in their course the domestic economies and societies of Europe. The rise of these transoceanic goods to staple commodities in European countries has offered historians a unique opportunity to investigate the emergence of the early stages of a “consumer culture” in Europe and the expansion of markets that accompanied it.
Mark S. Warner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813061115
- eISBN:
- 9780813051390
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813061115.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This book examines the food remains of two African American households of the late nineteenth century in Annapolis, Maryland. As with their white neighbors, the families who lived there participated ...
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This book examines the food remains of two African American households of the late nineteenth century in Annapolis, Maryland. As with their white neighbors, the families who lived there participated in the explosive emergence of mass consumer culture. From the second half of the nineteenth century onward, this world of mass-produced goods, large corporations, and national marketing campaigns would both beckon to the Maynard and Burgess households and simultaneously remind them of their “place”. Racism and mass consumer culture oftentimes combined to create an everyday existence that was fraught with obstacles for African Americans. The challenge for the Maynards, Burgesses, and other African Americans living from the first half of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century was how to assert their aspirations, values, and personal stories in ways that satisfied their sense of dignity and worth yet would not arouse the ire of an oppressive white society. In this volume, I explore how these families’ daily food choices within a newly emergent mass consumer society served as a relatively safe way to express a unique outlook and history, as well as offer a subtle, yet persistent, commentary on the racist stereotypes and violence that surrounded them. The essential transience of food—on the plate one minute and in the stomach the next—made it an ideal form for African Americans to express themselves without attracting the scrutiny of white society.Less
This book examines the food remains of two African American households of the late nineteenth century in Annapolis, Maryland. As with their white neighbors, the families who lived there participated in the explosive emergence of mass consumer culture. From the second half of the nineteenth century onward, this world of mass-produced goods, large corporations, and national marketing campaigns would both beckon to the Maynard and Burgess households and simultaneously remind them of their “place”. Racism and mass consumer culture oftentimes combined to create an everyday existence that was fraught with obstacles for African Americans. The challenge for the Maynards, Burgesses, and other African Americans living from the first half of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century was how to assert their aspirations, values, and personal stories in ways that satisfied their sense of dignity and worth yet would not arouse the ire of an oppressive white society. In this volume, I explore how these families’ daily food choices within a newly emergent mass consumer society served as a relatively safe way to express a unique outlook and history, as well as offer a subtle, yet persistent, commentary on the racist stereotypes and violence that surrounded them. The essential transience of food—on the plate one minute and in the stomach the next—made it an ideal form for African Americans to express themselves without attracting the scrutiny of white society.
Patrick Hyder Patterson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450044
- eISBN:
- 9780801463631
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450044.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book examines Yugoslavia's consumer society and its consequences for both the life and the death of the country's experiment in reformist socialism and multiethnic federalism. Yugoslavia is a ...
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This book examines Yugoslavia's consumer society and its consequences for both the life and the death of the country's experiment in reformist socialism and multiethnic federalism. Yugoslavia is a country with a system of government that many once considered to be the best of all possible socialisms: a bold and noble, if flawed, experiment in tolerance and flexibility. The results were striking and the implications profound. From the mid-1950s on the political climate in Yugoslavia permitted, and later even encouraged, the acquisition of various consumer goods and services, and the consumption of experiences like holiday getaways, moviegoing, dancing and drinking in discotheques, and foreign travel. Focusing on the socialist period from 1945 to 1991, and especially the 1960s and 1970s, this book explores the varying social, cultural, and political meanings of consumption in Yugoslavia. The goal is to understand whether consumer culture mattered in Yugoslavia, with particular emphasis on the Yugoslav vision of the Good Life and the Yugoslav Dream.Less
This book examines Yugoslavia's consumer society and its consequences for both the life and the death of the country's experiment in reformist socialism and multiethnic federalism. Yugoslavia is a country with a system of government that many once considered to be the best of all possible socialisms: a bold and noble, if flawed, experiment in tolerance and flexibility. The results were striking and the implications profound. From the mid-1950s on the political climate in Yugoslavia permitted, and later even encouraged, the acquisition of various consumer goods and services, and the consumption of experiences like holiday getaways, moviegoing, dancing and drinking in discotheques, and foreign travel. Focusing on the socialist period from 1945 to 1991, and especially the 1960s and 1970s, this book explores the varying social, cultural, and political meanings of consumption in Yugoslavia. The goal is to understand whether consumer culture mattered in Yugoslavia, with particular emphasis on the Yugoslav vision of the Good Life and the Yugoslav Dream.
Cele C. Otnes
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520236615
- eISBN:
- 9780520937505
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520236615.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses how pervasive weddings have become in the cultural landscape, noting the statistics of weddings in the United States alone and attempting to determine whether a wedding can ...
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This chapter discusses how pervasive weddings have become in the cultural landscape, noting the statistics of weddings in the United States alone and attempting to determine whether a wedding can nowadays still be considered a ritual. It explains the increasing popularity of lavish weddings, whereby a wedding has become elevated to the special status of luxury good in modern consumer culture, and also takes a look at the relationship between consumption and romance, while emphasizing the fact that people want lavish weddings in order to experience magic in their lives.Less
This chapter discusses how pervasive weddings have become in the cultural landscape, noting the statistics of weddings in the United States alone and attempting to determine whether a wedding can nowadays still be considered a ritual. It explains the increasing popularity of lavish weddings, whereby a wedding has become elevated to the special status of luxury good in modern consumer culture, and also takes a look at the relationship between consumption and romance, while emphasizing the fact that people want lavish weddings in order to experience magic in their lives.
Patrick Hyder Patterson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450044
- eISBN:
- 9780801463631
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450044.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter shows that ordinary Yugoslavs often really were “sold” on what the Yugoslav system promised to deliver: they loved their consumer culture and they celebrated their chance to participate ...
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This chapter shows that ordinary Yugoslavs often really were “sold” on what the Yugoslav system promised to deliver: they loved their consumer culture and they celebrated their chance to participate in it. Many, if not most, ordinary citizens of Yugoslavia were neither especially disturbed by market culture nor much concerned about its potentially harmful effects. For the Yugoslav “man on the street,” and, just as important, his female counterpart, the polemics launched against consumerism never seem to have had the profound chastening effect that critics desired. This chapter examines how the critique of consumerism triggered a serious and uncompromising backlash against critics, as well as the role of mass media, including television, in showcasing the public mood toward questions of consumption and consumer wealth. It also considers public opinion regarding the culture of abundance associated with consumerism.Less
This chapter shows that ordinary Yugoslavs often really were “sold” on what the Yugoslav system promised to deliver: they loved their consumer culture and they celebrated their chance to participate in it. Many, if not most, ordinary citizens of Yugoslavia were neither especially disturbed by market culture nor much concerned about its potentially harmful effects. For the Yugoslav “man on the street,” and, just as important, his female counterpart, the polemics launched against consumerism never seem to have had the profound chastening effect that critics desired. This chapter examines how the critique of consumerism triggered a serious and uncompromising backlash against critics, as well as the role of mass media, including television, in showcasing the public mood toward questions of consumption and consumer wealth. It also considers public opinion regarding the culture of abundance associated with consumerism.
Patrick Hyder Patterson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450044
- eISBN:
- 9780801463631
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450044.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter explores what the movement toward consumerism meant for the making and unmaking of the Yugoslav experiment in reformist socialism and multiethnic comity. It shows how consumerism gave ...
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This chapter explores what the movement toward consumerism meant for the making and unmaking of the Yugoslav experiment in reformist socialism and multiethnic comity. It shows how consumerism gave rise to a new New Class whose membership was predicated upon participation in a modern style of mass consumption, a complex of behaviors, tastes, and attitudes that in many respects resembled those seen in the classic Western sites of contemporary consumer society. It also considers how popular consumer culture, paired with the market culture cultivated by the new business elites, became a defining feature of Yugoslav daily life. Finally, it examines the nature of the consumerist New Class and its implications for the final stage of downturn and disillusionment in Yugoslavia caused by the contradictions of consumerism and the end of the Yugoslav Dream.Less
This chapter explores what the movement toward consumerism meant for the making and unmaking of the Yugoslav experiment in reformist socialism and multiethnic comity. It shows how consumerism gave rise to a new New Class whose membership was predicated upon participation in a modern style of mass consumption, a complex of behaviors, tastes, and attitudes that in many respects resembled those seen in the classic Western sites of contemporary consumer society. It also considers how popular consumer culture, paired with the market culture cultivated by the new business elites, became a defining feature of Yugoslav daily life. Finally, it examines the nature of the consumerist New Class and its implications for the final stage of downturn and disillusionment in Yugoslavia caused by the contradictions of consumerism and the end of the Yugoslav Dream.
Andrea Jain
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- December 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199390236
- eISBN:
- 9780199390274
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199390236.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book explores how modern yoga became transformed from a largely countercultural phenomenon to a part of pop culture when entrepreneurs became strategic participants in a global market and ...
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This book explores how modern yoga became transformed from a largely countercultural phenomenon to a part of pop culture when entrepreneurs became strategic participants in a global market and succeeded in “selling yoga” by establishing continuity between their yoga brands and the dominant demands of consumer culture. Although the book focuses on the most widely consumed yoga systems, those of postural yoga, it compares a diverse array of modern yoga types. The book departs from conventional approaches to the history of yoga by undermining essentialist definitions of yoga as well as assumptions that yoga underwent a linear trajectory of increasing popularization. It uncovers how yoga underwent popularization as a result of factors unique to late-twentieth-century consumer culture and explains how yoga entrepreneurs prescribed the commodities associated with their yoga brands as a part of self-development believed to provide increased beauty and flexibility as well as decreased stress that can be combined with other worldviews and practices available in the global market. Finally, the book evaluates exempla from popularized yoga systems in a way that takes insider perspectives seriously and reveals how they serve as bodies of religious practice when they destabilize the basic utility of commodities and assign to them new, often sacred, meanings.Less
This book explores how modern yoga became transformed from a largely countercultural phenomenon to a part of pop culture when entrepreneurs became strategic participants in a global market and succeeded in “selling yoga” by establishing continuity between their yoga brands and the dominant demands of consumer culture. Although the book focuses on the most widely consumed yoga systems, those of postural yoga, it compares a diverse array of modern yoga types. The book departs from conventional approaches to the history of yoga by undermining essentialist definitions of yoga as well as assumptions that yoga underwent a linear trajectory of increasing popularization. It uncovers how yoga underwent popularization as a result of factors unique to late-twentieth-century consumer culture and explains how yoga entrepreneurs prescribed the commodities associated with their yoga brands as a part of self-development believed to provide increased beauty and flexibility as well as decreased stress that can be combined with other worldviews and practices available in the global market. Finally, the book evaluates exempla from popularized yoga systems in a way that takes insider perspectives seriously and reveals how they serve as bodies of religious practice when they destabilize the basic utility of commodities and assign to them new, often sacred, meanings.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226218007
- eISBN:
- 9780226218021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226218021.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In 1936 the Star Electrical Supply Company hired a young New Jersey architect named Barney Gruzen to modernize its premises on Market Street in downtown Newark. Gruzen's redesign was exceptionally ...
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In 1936 the Star Electrical Supply Company hired a young New Jersey architect named Barney Gruzen to modernize its premises on Market Street in downtown Newark. Gruzen's redesign was exceptionally thorough and reflected the decade's dominant strategies of commercial modernization. The modernization of Star Electrical was emblematic of the relationship between architecture and consumer culture during the Great Depression. Like so many streamlined consumer products, the Star Electrical building was repackaged to appear new and improved, even though in essence it remained the same store it had always been. But Star Electrical's proprietors, as well as its customers, willingly accepted this repackaged image because what they were looking at was more than simply a modernized building; it was an antidote to the Depression. The Federal Housing Administration was unequivocal in acknowledging that obsolescence lay at the foundation of its modernization program. This chapter explores the modernization of storefronts along Main Street during the Depression era and looks at modernized buildings as consumer goods.Less
In 1936 the Star Electrical Supply Company hired a young New Jersey architect named Barney Gruzen to modernize its premises on Market Street in downtown Newark. Gruzen's redesign was exceptionally thorough and reflected the decade's dominant strategies of commercial modernization. The modernization of Star Electrical was emblematic of the relationship between architecture and consumer culture during the Great Depression. Like so many streamlined consumer products, the Star Electrical building was repackaged to appear new and improved, even though in essence it remained the same store it had always been. But Star Electrical's proprietors, as well as its customers, willingly accepted this repackaged image because what they were looking at was more than simply a modernized building; it was an antidote to the Depression. The Federal Housing Administration was unequivocal in acknowledging that obsolescence lay at the foundation of its modernization program. This chapter explores the modernization of storefronts along Main Street during the Depression era and looks at modernized buildings as consumer goods.
Carol Benedict
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262775
- eISBN:
- 9780520948563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262775.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book presents a social and cultural history of tobacco use in China from circa 1550 to the present. It analyzes the historical factors that shaped Chinese tobacco consumption over the longue ...
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This book presents a social and cultural history of tobacco use in China from circa 1550 to the present. It analyzes the historical factors that shaped Chinese tobacco consumption over the longue durée while also contributing to an emerging historiography of Chinese consumption in cross-cultural perspective. From tobacco's initial introduction in the sixteenth century to the subsequent inclusion of snuff, water-pipe tobacco, rolled cigars, and manufactured cigarettes in the repertoire of Chinese consumption practices, China's indigenous cultures of tobacco use have consistently unfolded within a broader world-historical frame. The creative appropriation of imported tobacco initiated in the late Ming continued throughout the Qing and into the twentieth century, when cigarettes began to be widely sold in China. China's contemporary “cigarette culture”—and by extension its broader consumer culture—emerged out of an evolutionary process that unfolded in fits and starts over many centuries through ongoing, if sometimes interrupted, Chinese engagement with an already interconnected world. This book also looks at literary representations of smoking in Republican China and the decline of female smoking in China between 1900 and 1976.Less
This book presents a social and cultural history of tobacco use in China from circa 1550 to the present. It analyzes the historical factors that shaped Chinese tobacco consumption over the longue durée while also contributing to an emerging historiography of Chinese consumption in cross-cultural perspective. From tobacco's initial introduction in the sixteenth century to the subsequent inclusion of snuff, water-pipe tobacco, rolled cigars, and manufactured cigarettes in the repertoire of Chinese consumption practices, China's indigenous cultures of tobacco use have consistently unfolded within a broader world-historical frame. The creative appropriation of imported tobacco initiated in the late Ming continued throughout the Qing and into the twentieth century, when cigarettes began to be widely sold in China. China's contemporary “cigarette culture”—and by extension its broader consumer culture—emerged out of an evolutionary process that unfolded in fits and starts over many centuries through ongoing, if sometimes interrupted, Chinese engagement with an already interconnected world. This book also looks at literary representations of smoking in Republican China and the decline of female smoking in China between 1900 and 1976.
Eric S. Jenkins
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748695478
- eISBN:
- 9781474406413
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748695478.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Special Affects retells the history of the emergence of classical Hollywood cinema and Disney animation from the perspective of affect theory. It argues that these media enabled new modes of ...
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Special Affects retells the history of the emergence of classical Hollywood cinema and Disney animation from the perspective of affect theory. It argues that these media enabled new modes of perception that sparked special affects such as the astonishment of early cinema, the marvel of early animation, the fantastic in classical cinema, and wonder in classical Disney. These special affects become mined by culture industries and translated into modes of consumerism and consumer ideology, as represented here by different versions of the American Dream narrative. This retelling of media history concludes that there is an inherent connection between media and consumerism, since media enable new modes of perception that can spark special affections that both attract and train consumers. The book also concludes that, from the perspective of affect, Disney animation constitutes a unique contribution to consumer culture, one distinct from the contributions of classical Hollywood with which Disney is so often conflated. The book ends by considering how this retelling of media history might inform current changes to animation, cinema and consumer culture due to the emergence of digital animation.Less
Special Affects retells the history of the emergence of classical Hollywood cinema and Disney animation from the perspective of affect theory. It argues that these media enabled new modes of perception that sparked special affects such as the astonishment of early cinema, the marvel of early animation, the fantastic in classical cinema, and wonder in classical Disney. These special affects become mined by culture industries and translated into modes of consumerism and consumer ideology, as represented here by different versions of the American Dream narrative. This retelling of media history concludes that there is an inherent connection between media and consumerism, since media enable new modes of perception that can spark special affections that both attract and train consumers. The book also concludes that, from the perspective of affect, Disney animation constitutes a unique contribution to consumer culture, one distinct from the contributions of classical Hollywood with which Disney is so often conflated. The book ends by considering how this retelling of media history might inform current changes to animation, cinema and consumer culture due to the emergence of digital animation.
