Firmly Grounded Their Art in the Consumer Culture and Mass Media of the Postwar Period

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Joshua Walker Addison, it's been a few months since yous asked but I'll reply notwithstanding just in case! The volume is 409 pages long and academic in nature which slow…more than Addison, it'due south been a few months since y'all asked just I'll answer nonetheless just in case! The volume is 409 pages long and academic in nature which slows the pace at times. However, it took me about 15-18 hours over a couple of days and I read slow. Very interesting at times, depending on what you are looking for. Hope that helps.(less)

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Start your review of A Consumers' Commonwealth: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America

Feb 08, 2009 Billy rated information technology really liked it

Argues that Keynesian-paradigms of thought transcended the New Deal brain-trusters and was adopted past grassroots consumers. In short, consumption became a political act in and of itself during the New Deal, and this dollar activism has remained in the Usa ever since. In her examination, she builds upon E.P. Thompson's thought of a "moral economy," a notion that began with the Progressive era but came to actualization during the Bully Depression. In particular, women and African American one thousand Argues that Keynesian-paradigms of thought transcended the New Deal brain-trusters and was adopted by grassroots consumers. In short, consumption became a political human action in and of itself during the New Deal, and this dollar activism has remained in the U.s.a. ever since. In her examination, she builds upon E.P. Thompson'south idea of a "moral economic system," a notion that began with the Progressive era simply came to actualization during the Dandy Depression. In particular, women and African American grassroots consumer activism gave these unremarkably disenfranchised groups ability. Equally activists, they forced issues of Civil Rights onto businesses that would discriminate. During the New Deal, administrators focuses on the rights of consumers, not producers, a sharp stardom after decades of adhering to Say's Law. She argues that Keynesians subscribed to the concept of "purchaser-consumers," or politics of purchasing. During the Common cold War, consumption was in and of itself an human action confronting communism. Politics pushed the freedom of purchasing, thereby creating a Consumer's Democracy." Private consumption became the appropriate course of political public expression. This shift tin can still be seen in American mural in the "landscape of mass consumption": suburbia, strip malls, and highways. In short, bourgeoisie is an extension of Keynesian policies. She detests this growth, finding it socially destructive at the expense of economic growth. Suburbs put private consumption ahead of all other considerations—in this way her book can be compared with Rome and Galbraith. Sprawl created a racial and economic exclusivity all the same to be overcome. She hopes for a return to a landscape characterized by social equality, not clear delineations in the landscape depicting economic disparity.

Cohen'due south argument is important because information technology complicates our agreement of American history. She downplays—nay, challenges—the historical exclamation that the cold War was the defining influence on post-war America. Her consumer's republic was a post-war strategy "for reconstructing the nation's economic system and reaffirming its autonomous values through the expansion of mass consumption." (11) This consumers' Democracy impacted where and how Americans lived, how and what they consumed, and how they viewed government. The consumer'south democracy resulted in an economic upswing (Pax Americana), only also added to racial and gender stratification. This occurred through planning (i.east. suburbia, commercial 5. residential zoning). Target Marketing by pattern stratifies by gender and race. Downtowns became decimated in favor of bourgeoisie and malls. Schools were funded unequally based on property taxes. The G.I. bill aided predominantly white males. The 1970s economical crisis collapsed the Consumers' Republic. In response, a growing political aim to aid in privatization and deregulation are justified as aiding the consumer and therefore the entire economy. Consumers view gov't policies as another consumer good to be judged based on individual utility. (review)

At the end of WWII, New Deal era labor and consumers' movements lost the battle to retain price controls. This defeat combined with postwar reconversion legislation and shifted power away from New Deal models of consumer citizenship towards white, male, middle-class consumers. The women now became not an active fellow member of political activity, only a Keynesian pawn held to her dwelling to swallow. There were notable exceptions: boycotts and sit-ins of civil rights activists come to mind. Her book attempts to answer Michael Denning's argument about the "laboring of American civilisation" during the New Deal.

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Feb 22, 2012 Craig Werner rated information technology really liked it

Cohen's thesis--and this is very much a thesis driven volume, sometimes to its bridle--is that in the years since World War 2, the United States is best understood as a "consumers' republic," and that, for the about part, that has operated to the detriment of political citizenship. The consumers' republic refers to the intersection of an economy, culture and politics "built around the promises of mass consumption, both in terms of material life and the more idealistic goals of freedom, democrac Cohen's thesis--and this is very much a thesis driven book, sometimes to its determent--is that in the years since World State of war Two, the United states of america is best understood as a "consumers' democracy," and that, for the virtually office, that has operated to the detriment of political citizenship. The consumers' republic refers to the intersection of an economy, culture and politics "built around the promises of mass consumption, both in terms of material life and the more idealistic goals of freedom, republic, and equality." Cohen does a good job examining the touch on of the emphasis on consumerism on housing, the marketplace (especially the growth of mall culture), and notions of community. Her discussion of how the increasing partitioning of marketing plays out not just in advertising just too in politics illuminates some of the forces that accept led to the horrendous red state-blue land carve up we're living with today. It's non a perfect book; the alternation between her micro studies of New Jersey (clearly dwelling base of operations for her research) and generalizations nearly the U.S. as a whole doesn't ever flow smoothly. Just I'd recommend it over Jackson's Crabgrass Borderland for anyone looking for an introduction to the near of import changes in American "lifestyle" from WWII to the 1980s. ...more

November 15, 2021 Luke rated information technology really liked it

I don't know if it's but me, but I found this volume to be much more than difficult to read than Cohen'south first volume, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939. I'k not sure if I fully understand Cohen'due south statement, but this is what my major take-abroad is.

During the New Deal and World War Ii, many American citizens sought to eat specific goods for the sake of the nation. The idea hither was not to eat everything--frugality was necessary, and that which was consumed must do good the

I don't know if information technology'due south just me, but I establish this book to be much more hard to read than Cohen'due south showtime volume, Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939. I'm non certain if I fully understand Cohen'southward argument, but this is what my major accept-abroad is.

During the New Deal and World State of war II, many American citizens sought to consume specific goods for the sake of the nation. The idea here was not to eat everything--frugality was necessary, and that which was consumed must do good the larger nation. To be a proficient denizen, the interests of the nation had to be put offset, with luxuries and personal desires remaining subordinate to the United states (as an aggregate). These are an "ideal type" that Cohen calls denizen consumers

All the same, at the aforementioned time, another ideal type emerged--that of the purchasing consumer. The purchasing consumer liked to larn goods and pay for services for their ain sake, offering a level of luxury non before seen. However, the trouble with this is that purchasing anything had the possibility (and probability) of undermining limited consumption during the 2nd World State of war [pic related].

However, in the post-war years, the results of a sort of Hegelian dialectic emerge. The citizen consumer (the thesis) was synthesized with the purchasing consumer (the antithesis) to produce the purchaser as citizen. The purchaser as denizen is an ideal type that represents the perspective that ALL consumption really benefits the national interest, no matter what it is. In the wake of Depression and State of war, economic recovery was critical (although much of the engine was already spurred by the defense manufacture), and the best way to recover was past consuming, consuming, consuming. Consumption of goods requires people to produce those appurtenances, thereby creating jobs and strengthening the American economy. This worked well because, with the backdrop of devastation of years of warfare, there was nowhere else on Globe that could economically compete with the United States. The vast bulk of goods were produced domestically, thereby strengthening the American economic system further.

The unity of consumption and civic duty created a world where consumer activism, consumer rights, and consumption itself became representative of American values. In the procedure, Americans restructured their residential communities, commercial centers, and ostensibly empowered oppressed groups similar African Americans and women (I'chiliad less convinced by this concluding argument). Further strengthening the hold of consumption in the U.s.a., new industries were forged in marketing and advertising to promote consumption, which was largely successful.

The story ends with the collapse of the American economic system in the early 1970s, which delegitimized the deed of consumption equally a civic duty. Consumption connected and the association of consumer well-being with American prosperity connected, only consumption and "borough duty" became separated.

I know I just used the give-and-take "consumption" and its derivatives a lot, merely information technology's the best mode to describe what's happening hither. Cohen is largely disarming, but the logic of the book was, at times, a fleck confusing to me. Withal, it'south worth reading to make sense of the seeming idolization of consumerism in the The states.

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Aug 22, 2013 Hank Stuever rated information technology really liked it

Peachy starting time for anyone who wants to think or write more intelligently almost our shared shopaholic tendencies.

A smashing history of consumerism in the post-WWII Us.

Apr 03, 2018 Simon Purdue rated it really liked information technology

Cohen's sweeping history of the postwar catamenia paints a vivid pic of a rapidly changing social club. The writer describes a cultural mural in which the terms of citizenship had shifted dramatically, placing production and, more chiefly, consumption as the main term of involvement in this new 'consumer'southward republic'. Using her ain experiences growing upward in New Jersey every bit a case written report- particularly in the 3rd section of the book- Cohen argues that the encouragement of mass consumption h Cohen's sweeping history of the postwar period paints a vivid picture of a chop-chop irresolute society. The author describes a cultural landscape in which the terms of citizenship had shifted dramatically, placing production and, more importantly, consumption equally the chief term of involvement in this new 'consumer's republic'. Using her own experiences growing up in New Jersey as a case report- particularly in the tertiary department of the book- Cohen argues that the encouragement of mass consumption had get a concerted project driven by political and economic elites. She notes that consumption, primarily of American-produced goods, quickly became an essential component of citizenship in the new, suburban America, as shopping malls became major social spaces and possession of appurtenances became even more of an indicator of social status. This new civilization of consumption marked a gear-shift in the thought of social mobility and the 'American Dream', and for the starting time time information technology was the spending of money and not the earning of coin that paved the way to said dream. Furthermore the postwar years marked a notable shift in American commercialism, and a scaling back of the limitations imposed from the populist era through to the New Deal.
Crucially Cohen dedicates sizeable portions of her analysis of this new consumer'southward commonwealth to its failings and- in many cases deliberate- inequalities. She suggests that the consumer'south republic represented a more than segregated America than had been seen in the preceding decades, and that the rapid changes that were taking place in American gild left African-Americans behind. She, sometimes slightly clumsily, frames much of the Civil Rights Movement in consumerist terms, arguing that the 'urban rebellions' of the 1960s were the consequence of a renewed sense of African-American disenfranchisement and exclusion brought on by this reconfigured and exclusionary white heart class consumerist society. Cohen'due south volume frames consumption every bit a fundamental marker of American identity, paving the way for deeper explanations of what it meant to be a citizen in this new social structure.
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Jul 07, 2020 MargaretDH rated it it was astonishing

This is an extremely readable examination of the valourization of mass consumption in America in the middle of the twentieth century. Cohen argues that, beginning during the New Bargain, the idea of Americans equally citizens and equally consumers became inextricably linked, and that consumption was understood as an important fashion all people could do good to the health of the nation.

Cohen explores the rising of manufactured goods, suburbs, shopping centres and the ethos of increased spending on consumer goods a

This is an extremely readable examination of the valourization of mass consumption in America in the middle of the twentieth century. Cohen argues that, showtime during the New Bargain, the thought of Americans as citizens and as consumers became inextricably linked, and that consumption was understood as an important style all people could benefit to the wellness of the nation.

Cohen explores the rising of manufactured goods, suburbs, shopping centres and the ethos of increased spending on consumer appurtenances as a ascension tide that would lift all boats. She as well explores the racialized and gendered lenses through which consumerism was inevitably understood, and the means in which consumerism both empowered and disenfranchised American women and black Americans. Cohen also examines how important class was in America, despite how proudly many political leaders stated that the USA was a classless society, with all sharing in prosperity.

Though this was published in 2003, it's also a timely read. Information technology explores many of the means that black Americans have been excluded from American prosperity, from the GI bill to restrictive housing covenants to the 'don't shop where you can't piece of work' movement. If you're interested in learning about the ways that American policy has favoured some groups over others, while also touting the American dream, this is an splendid read.

As I mentioned above, this is extremely readable. Though detailed, Cohen's prose is crisp and lively. She likewise includes photos, advertisements and charts to illustrate her arguments. This is an bookish work, and it's non curt. Merely if you're interested in the subject area matter, I think information technology's worth picking upward.

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Jan xviii, 2022 Erik rated it actually liked information technology

Interesting to learn that modern consumerism is not but an outgrowth of natural human frailty in the form of greed merely was instead the creation of government policies to apply war production capacity to civilian needs after Globe War II. That's hopeful. It ways that humans aren't doomed by nature, or past some quality of American culture, to deplete natural resources through overconsumption and destroy the environment through waste matter. Instead, we can alter at present to use less just as we changed back Interesting to learn that modern consumerism is not just an outgrowth of natural human frailty in the form of greed merely was instead the creation of government policies to apply war product capacity to civilian needs after World State of war II. That's hopeful. It ways that humans aren't doomed by nature, or by some quality of American culture, to deplete natural resource through overconsumption and destroy the surround through waste. Instead, we tin can change at present to use less merely equally we inverse dorsum then to utilize more than. ...more

Mar 23, 2017 Mariel rated it really liked information technology

Cohen's argument tin can be broadly generalized to say that mail service-war economical policies and consumer spending habits led Americans to excogitate of themselves more than as consumers than politically-minded citizens. Even so, the nuance of her work, peculiarly in her attention to the gender and racial inequalities of post-war consumption patterns, illuminates a fundamental shift in what it means to exist an American citizen and what constitutes "rights" across the framers' intent. Read in March 2017, when the c Cohen's statement can be broadly generalized to say that postal service-state of war economic policies and consumer spending habits led Americans to conceive of themselves more every bit consumers than politically-minded citizens. However, the nuance of her work, especially in her attention to the gender and racial inequalities of mail-war consumption patterns, illuminates a fundamental shift in what it ways to exist an American denizen and what constitutes "rights" beyond the framers' intent. Read in March 2017, when the current political climate bears the unbearable stamp of consumption, fraud and market place segmentation, the significance of this shift could not have been visible to Cohen in 2003, simply her analysis provides an eerily prescient foreshadowing of the consequences of these factors. Unfortunately, her decision assumes an acceptance and continuation of the dual identity of consumers and citizens. She believes it would exist impossible to sever the social, economic or political connections that take fused over the concluding one-half of the 20th century. Nonetheless, conditions in 2017 advise that American political identities may have been long-dormant but are waking and may be poised to break costless from the sectionalization after all.

Cohen's writing is clear and refined. Although this is a work of advanced scholarship, it is well inside the achieve of able high school students and would be a great example of clear, professional historical writing. I can see using excerpts to teach content as well as style.

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Jun 24, 2017 Ross rated information technology liked it

After World State of war Two, Americans began to change their attitude toward the role of consumption in constructing American identity and values. Actively discouraged by the American government during the war and socially condemned during the Depression, postwar conspicuous consumption later on came to represent all that was ideally American in Cohen's "Consumers' Republic": freedom, egalitarianism, and democracy. Cohen argues that the reality of the Consumers' Republic was non so democratic, but wa Later Globe War 2, Americans began to alter their attitude toward the role of consumption in constructing American identity and values. Actively discouraged by the American regime during the war and socially condemned during the Depression, postwar conspicuous consumption subsequently came to correspond all that was ideally American in Cohen's "Consumers' Democracy": liberty, egalitarianism, and democracy. Cohen argues that the reality of the Consumers' Republic was not and then democratic, only was in fact a staging ground for competing notions of American identity and citizenry along racial, gender, and class lines.

Using her home state of New Bailiwick of jersey as a way to analyze mass consumption issues of the postwar era, Cohen details the origins, character, and consequences of this new American consumerist mentality and questions whether the Consumers' Republic really yielded all of its supposed benefits. She charts the origins of the Republic to the 1930s, when lawmakers, women, and African Americans pursued a "citizen consumer" part—a function that put the safety and political rights of the consumer at a premium. Authorities agencies reinforced and strengthened the citizen consumer concept through World State of war 2 with aggrandizement control and other artificial means of maintaining a stable and productive wartime economic system. Cohen places the house establishment of the Consumers' Republic in the immediate postwar period when government supported an expansion of the private sector, thereby assuming that this would be the sight of an egalitarian free market economy that would embody democratic ideals and freedom for all citizen consumers. Cohen shows that this was non always the case—women, African Americans, and depression-income consumers were ofttimes marginalized, both formally and informally, by a defensive rising eye form, a painfully slow-moving federal government, and individual developers and marketers who wanted to maximize profits, which meant marketing to the rise white centre class reaping the recent benefits of the GI Pecker. Cohen too examines the creation and expansion of the suburbs, privately owned shopping centers, and market segmentation, which were all function of the idealist Consumers' Democracy based more than on a dream of equality rather than a reality.

Every bit a consumer history, A Consumers' Republic is well conceived, well articulated, and well executed. Using her childhood home state to illustrate the larger trends taking identify throughout the The states is helpful and convincing, but it neglects the heterogeneity of the country. Regional economic differences were even more pronounced during the establishment of Cohen's Consumers' Commonwealth, leaving a southern or western historian to wonder whether these patterns of widespread suburbanization, multiplying shopping malls, and restructured taxation systems were as prevalent in other regions of the Usa. From a southern perspective, Cohen situates the role of consumerism amid urban African American southerners in the burgeoning Ceremonious Rights Move, merely fails to discuss the rural population that made up such a significant portion of the United States generally and the South more specifically. Additionally, the federal government takes a central role in her understanding of the Consumers' Republic, yet southern state governments were notoriously wary of federal intrusion into state policy. It is likely that the economical and social problems of the Due south put it exterior of the mainstream America that Cohen seems to be focused on, but it is a glaring omission in a book concerned with characterizing consumerism in postwar America as a whole.

In addition, Cohen fails to examine the rise of the modernistic tourist industry occurring almost simultaneously with the development of her Consumers' Commonwealth, particularly in states like Florida and California, where theme parks and resorts expanded into multimillion-dollar attractions capitalizing on Americans' postwar purchasing power. Parks like Disney World and Half dozen Flags became synonymous with centre class white America'south idea of family vacation and symbols of American consumerism abroad. Cohen's emphasis on the government's role in postwar consumerism implied that housing, malls, and modern appliances were all that consumers were purchasing, simply condition symbols went beyond a nice car and a nice dwelling house. Middle class families might not take been able to beget a trip to Europe or other exotic destinations, just domestic theme parks marketed straight to this rising heart class offered a more than exciting and economic culling to local attractions.

A Consumers' Commonwealth is the product of extensive enquiry and bang-up insight into the political and social history of modern American consumerism by an writer who conspicuously understands how the pursuit of economical prosperity may have defined postwar America even more than the idealism of the Common cold State of war. Every citizen participated in the Consumers' Democracy in some course or some other, whether by accepting the regime relief of the Depression, reaping the benefits of the GI Bill, or shopping in the local mall. With this book, it is now possible to sympathize how consumers' personal economical benefit became the catalyst for these extensions of the Consumers' Democracy.

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Aug 04, 2018 Jene rated it really liked it

Information technology'due south been 15 years since Cohen published A Consumers' Republic, making so much of her thesis seem old hat. Everybody knows near the postwar civilization of mass consumption. Just what makes this book an important read, even at present, is Cohen'south further analysis of the furnishings of this "Consumers' Commonwealth" (CR) on American lives. Americans of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds accepted the basic premise of the CR: that mass consumption would bring a greater equality to all of America. We didn't need t Information technology'due south been xv years since Cohen published A Consumers' Republic, making so much of her thesis seem erstwhile hat. Everybody knows about the postwar culture of mass consumption. But what makes this volume an important read, fifty-fifty now, is Cohen's further analysis of the effects of this "Consumers' Republic" (CR) on American lives. Americans of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds accepted the basic premise of the CR: that mass consumption would bring a greater equality to all of America. We didn't need the vast authorities programs of the New Bargain to bring everyone into the middle grade, or and so the thinking went. Cohen followed upwards on this mass consumption = mass democracy theory, and found that we (surprise) did non eliminate grade distinctions, only instead created new ones while solving some of the onetime. The postwar era was a lot more complicated than we like to recollect.
I think Cohen'due south best chapter was on suburbanization - the promises it held for middle-course white families, and the legal barriers erected to go along out working-course whites and people of color. ...more

Jun xv, 2020 David rated information technology it was amazing

I'm super busy at the moment so jotting down notes to write a fuller review later.

References Halberstam'south The Fifties with regards to advertizing

Companion to City of Quartz just focused on NJ

Focuses on Black and female person consumers, mainly 1945-1975

Blackness women organized confronting white shop owners in Harlem to force them to rent Black employees in the 1930s

Riots focused on white-owned businesses while Blackness-owned businesses were spared

Looters saw commercials for products featuring whites which stoke

I'one thousand super decorated at the moment so jotting down notes to write a fuller review later.

References Halberstam's The Fifties with regards to advertising

Companion to City of Quartz but focused on NJ

Focuses on Black and female person consumers, mainly 1945-1975

Black women organized against white shop owners in Harlem to forcefulness them to rent Black employees in the 1930s

Riots focused on white-owned businesses while Black-owned businesses were spared

Looters saw commercials for products featuring whites which stoked consumer resentment

Whites moved out of cities and into suburbs, bus lines limited Black commuters who didn't own cars in the aforementioned number as whites

Part time employees in suburbs were almost entirely white housewives

Women wouldn't buy a house or constitute credit without a husband, especially after a divorce

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This volume is long and dry, but it's a great resources if you lot desire a comprehensive overview of how our nation's economy and government grew to depend on consumerism. Cohen takes the reader through the 20th century, describing the diverse political, social, and technological factors that created the "consumer'due south republic" and how the civilization of mass consumption shaped the experiences of various segments of the population. She besides explores the various means consumerism has been treated as a political This book is long and dry, only information technology's a great resource if you want a comprehensive overview of how our nation'due south economy and regime grew to depend on consumerism. Cohen takes the reader through the 20th century, describing the various political, social, and technological factors that created the "consumer's commonwealth" and how the culture of mass consumption shaped the experiences of diverse segments of the population. She also explores the various ways consumerism has been treated as a political human activity or an deed of citizenship. ...more

May 09, 2021 Aimee rated it really liked information technology

Very thought provoking, offers lots of insight into the citizen-consumer human relationship. I thought it was very long, and at times unnecessarily long. Maybe I'm but maxim that because I had to read it for a class and was under a fourth dimension crunch and that was very annoying. So, information technology was interesting, just I would non read a 500 folio book nigh mass consumption unless I was forced to. Very thought provoking, offers lots of insight into the citizen-consumer human relationship. I thought it was very long, and at times unnecessarily long. Maybe I'm simply maxim that because I had to read it for a class and was under a time crisis and that was very annoying. So, it was interesting, but I would not read a 500 folio volume about mass consumption unless I was forced to. ...more

I thought this was very interesting! Some deep dives in consumer activism and what it ways to live in a society driven past mass consumption. The segmentation of markets coupled with the rise of identity politics was super interesting to me.

Nov 13, 2019 Ietrio rated information technology did not similar it

For Cohen, a woman'southward place is in the kitchen. There the woman should work twenty-four hours and night as penitence for the Original Sin. And Cohen will fight till the terminate to accomplish this divine goal. For Cohen, a woman'southward place is in the kitchen. In that location the adult female should work twenty-four hour period and night as penitence for the Original Sin. And Cohen volition fight till the stop to achieve this divine goal. ...more

Feb 28, 2020 Bethany Greenish rated it really liked it

Dandy read! Then insightful, particularly into my parent's generation. Great read! And so insightful, particularly into my parent's generation. ...more

Mar 09, 2021 gadabout rated it really liked it

Well written, well researched, and consistent. It does lose me on a few points every bit far equally making poor conclusions or showing unfair bias, but it's otherwise a very informative book. Well written, well researched, and consistent. It does lose me on a few points equally far as making poor conclusions or showing unfair bias, but it's otherwise a very informative volume. ...more

Jan 24, 2022 Jimmacc rated it actually liked it

Really interesting book. I enjoyed the walk through various consumer trends' life cycle. I think some of them equally they started. The labor and consumer activism discussions were eye opening.

Mar xiii, 2015 Joseph Stieb rated it it was amazing

This is a well-researched, clearly written, and fascinating volume that I volition come back to over and over again. It'south one of those "this is the why the globe is the way it is" books that are just incredibly valuable to scholars and the general reader alike. It wasn't e'er the quickest read, but it is highly illuminating.

Cohen's focus is on consumption, citizenship, and suburbanization. She argues that consumption in the 1930's and 40's became a patriotic act designed to boost the economy under Thou

This is a well-researched, conspicuously written, and fascinating volume that I will come up back to over and over again. Information technology'south ane of those "this is the why the earth is the way it is" books that are just incredibly valuable to scholars and the general reader alike. It wasn't always the quickest read, but it is highly illuminating.

Cohen's focus is on consumption, citizenship, and suburbanization. She argues that consumption in the 1930'due south and 40's became a patriotic human action designed to heave the economic system under Keynesian auspices. Later the war, many people envisioned a "consumer'due south republic" in which high levels of income and consumption would raise the standard of living of all Americans and unite them in an age oIn the l's and 60's, it became more of a mode of life that mixed into race, where people lived, gender, and politics. Consumerism and citizenship became tightly entwined concepts considering consuming was seen as so crucial to keeping the postwar boom going. Over time, this conflation changed people's perception of themselves as citizens and the nation as a whole.

Suburbanization is a huge part of Cohen's argument. Cohen contends that the suburbs allowed people to live out a dream of prosperity, easy consumption, and independence, simply at a cost. At that place was always a nicer suburb to motility into, then suburbs started to reflect class hierarchies. They also tuckered money out of cities, which had hugely negative consequences for urban pedagogy and business organization. For example, new shopping centers popped up to serve the motorized suburbanites' consumption needs, draining the cities of much revenue. Suburbanites, for a mix of racial and economic reasons, wanted to ensure a homogenous population and therefore tried a number of tricks to proceed out minorities, including up zoning, redlining, protective covenants, and direct up intimidation or ostracization. Cohen shows that the racist fear of property values dropping when minorities movement in (a myth, btw) was pervasive in shaping suburban living patterns and ensuring black cities and white suburbs. The real question Cohen raises is whether suburbanization increased racial inequality and distrust. The answer for the time period of this book (50'due south to 70's) seems to be yeah.

Cohen makes some fascinating points about consumption and race. On i hand, the recognition of the power of the consumer was a major source of empowerment and rights protest. At the end of the solar day, most businesses wanted their money, which gave them some leverage as long as they acted in a united way. For blacks, the right to eat what they wanted on an equal basis with whites was a key demand that shaped ceremonious rights protests in the 1950'south especially. The "don't shop where y'all tin't work" campaign won many concessions regarding black employment in By the 1960'due south, companies were paying way more attending to the black market, offering specific products and messages. On the other hand, mass consumption and the consumer mentality increased many trends that hurt African Americans, especially those living in the inner cities. Large companies often ran smaller, black owned companies out of business once they turned their attending to the black market place. Blacks remained disempowered economically in their communities as stores tended to be endemic by outsiders. I take already mentioned the negative outcomes emerging from changing economic patterns relating to suburbanization. Finally, the geographic relocation of shopping centers drained stores and money out of cities, leading to employment issues for African Americans.

The biggest beard stroker of an argument in this book dealt with the connection betwixt consumption and politics. Cohen shows the consumption encouraged a self and small-group centered version of the mutual good. Market sectionalization contributed to this tendency. Markets divided up consumers into men, women, blacks, Latinos, kids, teenagers, the elderly, and then dozens of subsets of those groups, and marketed specifically to each grouping. Cohen says that politicians increasingly followed this method in campaigns, dividing up the denizens into a number of groups who all received dissimilar entrada letters. Her conclusion is that Americans increasingly view politics from the consumer's perspective, which has eroded the common good and notions of public service. Our political fragmentation and partisan rancor have but been enhanced past this trend.

Cohen is a bit more than pessimistic than I am about this story of consumption and suburbanization. To be fair, she does account for the many programs adopted to lessen the negative effects of these trends. She also notes how successful and positive the consumer advocacy movement has been, particularly under Ralph Nader in the 1970'due south. She clearly dislikes suburbs, but she doesn't permit this bias get in the way of her history. This is a landmark volume.

The comp stomp continues.

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Feb thirteen, 2012 William rated information technology liked it

Lizabeth Cohen's A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption, is a interesting look at the economic and cultural currents which transformed America during the early years of the Common cold State of war. Cohen initially traces this current from the headwaters of the Progressive era, clearly evidenced by Thorsten Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Grade, in which Veblen argued for the existence of a Gold Age proto-"keeping up with the Joneses" mentality of social mimicry. Every bit Cohen illustrates, however, Lizabeth Cohen's A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption, is a interesting wait at the economic and cultural currents which transformed America during the early years of the Cold War. Cohen initially traces this current from the headwaters of the Progressive era, clearly evidenced by Thorsten Veblen'due south Theory of the Leisure Class, in which Veblen argued for the existence of a Gilded Age proto-"keeping up with the Joneses" mentality of social mimicry. As Cohen illustrates, however, the torrent is truly unleashed by the adoption of Keynesian economics during the Great Depression and Second Earth War, and furthered by the perpetuation of same not merely in the initial postwar ear, but throughout the Cold War and beyond.

Cohen develops an interesting taxonomy for participants in this "consumers' commonwealth," a term she uses to describe the distinct rise of mass consumption, with both its economic and cultural implications, following Earth War 2. Cohen describes "citizen consumers," who sought to back up the public good through their consumption of goods, and "purchaser consumers," who were oriented toward self-serving acquisitiveness. Eventually, according to Cohen, these two types begin to amalgamate into the "purchaser as citizen," who attempts to satisfy a sense of civic consumerist duty while also seeking to benefit by the exercise of personal economic sovereignty. This last piece – a notion of private sovereignty, or "liberty" in the rhetoric of the Cold War – was tied to an abundance of goods in the marketplace vying for consumer pick and the individual economic means of the consumer to pursue choice. This understanding of freedom was most notably articulated in the Kitchen Fence between then-Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Start Secretary Nikita Khrushchev. Notwithstanding, Cohen illustrates that this ideal of private economical liberty was hitched to a sensibility, pronounced most provocatively in 1957 by William H. Whyte, editor of Fortune magazine, that "thrift is at present united nations-American." In post-McCarthy America, this truly was a notable statement of the confluence of political and economic ideology. Given this understanding of freedom and patriotism, ane wonders if product outside of the organization is considered destructive.

While much of Cohen's piece of work was interesting, 1 expanse which struck me as uneven was her examination of the Chiliad.I. Nib. While Cohen effectively describes how the benefits provided for in the G.I. Bill were inconsistently available or unequally applied fifty-fifty within the population of veterans, with particular regard to veterans of color, women veterans, and homosexual veterans given "blue discharges," she continues across this criticism of the practical implementation of the G.I. Bill. Stating that the G.I. Nib was "the primary policy instrument favoring men over women" in the re-establishment of postwar social order conveniently overlooks that men were overwhelmingly selected for service in the war to begin with - equally Cohen states, of the sixteen million men and women who served during the war, almost ii per centum, or approximately 320,000, were women. While the G.I. Bill undeniably established American males every bit principle breadwinners within postwar American society, the effect was essentially inevitable given the demographic selected for service. To back up this analysis, Cohen invokes the Bradley Commission's written report of veterans benefits, which suggested that government resources should be "more equitably distributed to all citizens through more than universal social programs." How the timely reintegration of 15 million American men into the domestic economic system would have been effectively managed without the G.I. Bill, which moderated the menstruum of veterans dorsum into the labor pool through education and vocational grooming benefits, is left to the reader to determine.

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Mar 06, 2017 Cynthia rated it liked it

Interesting merely very dense, strategically organized in kind of an odd way, and damn is that conclusion depressing.

Interesting accept on American history from the 1930'due south forward that focuses on the role (or you could say rule) of the consumer (rather than the voter or worker), arguing that they became the controlling influence, and sometimes fifty-fifty the decision-making power in American guild.

As I read this I realized that I had already read some of the chapters for various classes on American history (namely the ones on suburbia and shopping malls). In fact this book is more a drove of journal articles writt

Interesting take on American history from the 1930's forward that focuses on the role (or yous could say dominion) of the consumer (rather than the voter or worker), arguing that they became the controlling influence, and sometimes even the controlling power in American society.

As I read this I realized that I had already read some of the chapters for various classes on American history (namely the ones on bourgeoisie and shopping malls). In fact this book is more a drove of journal articles written by an writer with central area of interest than a unified book, and as such is very like shooting fish in a barrel to separate into chunks applicable to various class topics. Equally testify, the concluding 32% of the book is notes, bibliography, etc.

Cohen has a markedly Marxist/feminist/liberal bent to her piece of work, and much of the volume is focused on how consumers' economical interests accept often functioned in direct opposition to their political ones, with the exceptions of when they mobilized to use their collective economic power to enforce modify -- a period which she herself admits was fleeting and was dependent on a strong economy (task security). Her affiliate on consumer cultures and the shifts from mass market to segmented markets, and how producers grab a segment and begin to mold it via producing for it is fascinating.

The book starts off talking a footling bit about the rise of consumer protection laws in the progressive era, merely so argues that consumer power became political in the language of the new deal expanse culminating in the political mobilization of women's social groups in the xxx'southward to utilize their power as consumers to protect their families via laws designed to control unfair pricing, etc and then by union workers to boycott stores that didn't have union workers. The side by side section is on how African Americans utilized their ability as consumers to force the stores that served them to also hire them (as more than janitors, etc). The next section considers the cosmos of the suburbs, and the home as the largest consumer purchase, and how individual'due south owners concern with maintaining property values (rightly or wrongly) resulted in segregated neighborhoods. This segregation in turn resulted in imbalances in education as local real-estate taxes funded local schools. She so moves on to the rise of shopping centers (this was ane of the chapters I had already read for a grade). She and then talks about the ascent of consumer markets and how marketing changed over fourth dimension as it became more and more near reaching individuals segments, with the marketers getting more scientific in their approaches past utilizing sociology, anthropology, etc. She so goes on to talk about how politics became influenced past this sectionalization, transforming it so that only those already rich plenty to undertake a targeted add campaign (or backed by people rich enough) could afford to run. And then she talks near the button dorsum by corporations to disengage all the political gains of the consumers/workers, starting in the 70'south.

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Nov 09, 2013 Stephen rated it actually liked it

What is the meaning of citizenship? To the Romans, and to the early Americans, citizenship was an exclusive state of beingness that depended on owning land, and so a stake in society. In the early twentieth century, however, every bit suffrage waxed more universal and markets were flooded with goods made for the masses, citizenship took on a unlike meaning. To exist a citizen of a modern, capitalist republic was to exist a Consumer; voices rang out most strongly at the marketplace, non the ballot box. In A C What is the meaning of citizenship? To the Romans, and to the early Americans, citizenship was an exclusive land of being that depended on owning state, and and so a stake in society. In the early on twentieth century, withal, as suffrage waxed more universal and markets were flooded with goods made for the masses, citizenship took on a dissimilar meaning. To be a denizen of a modern, backer democracy was to be a Consumer; voices rang out about strongly at the market, not the ballot box. In A Consumer's Republic, author Lizbeth Cohen examines the way the burgeoning consumer market effected political activism. Showtime with consumer activist groups who protested loftier prices amid the Depression, her history examines the Civil Rights and feminist movements through the lens of consumption. Consumer equality, not income distribution, would create a classless gild. Women fought for the right to take their own bank accounts and lines of credit in addition to equal wages; blacks labored for just prices in stores as well equally unhindered access to the vote. This is an account of social, political, marketing history, intertwined together. Consumption didn't just serve individual desires; as Keynsianism became the dominant economic philosophy, intellectuals and citizen-consumers alike saw their compulsive ownership as not simply fun, but patriotic: their every new gadget grew the economic system. The consumers' democracy began to die in the 1970s and 1980s amid economic turbulence; fifty-fifty though people continued to buy more than and more, the political attribute of their purchasing, the meaning they had given it, cruel away, both because the economic system no longer responded as Keynes promised and their motives became more purely self-focused and only tangently connected to the idea of improving the nation's fortunes.

Although occasionally touching on the negative aspects of the rapidly expanding consumer culture -- the growth of suburbia, for case -- A Consumers' Democracy is not a polemic raging against consumerism, and effects open up to interpretation, like the consequences of consumerism on citizens' peace of mind, are not touched on. It has a scholarly feel, though a 'pop' look; the art is well-done, including enough of large black and white photographs that demonstrate the point at hand, and stylized headings that bring to listen advertisements from the 1950s. I particularly constructive analogy shows the evolution of advertising in Ebony magazine from the 1950s to the 1970s, every bit white-owned haircare manufactures realized that (1) blacks were a market place and (2) that black people were a different marketplace. They gradually transition from a white model demonstrating hair treatment lotion to a blackness model advertising products related to 'natural' hair. Republic is a fascinating await at some other side of the ascent of consumption, impressively thorough in that respect, and free of scathing criticism if not disquisitional substance.

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May 29, 2014 Tim rated it information technology was amazing

First-class history, deeply researched and convincingly argued. Cohen tracks the formation of a Consumer Republic ("an economy, culture, and politics built around the promises of mass consumption, both in terms of cloth life and the more than idealistic goals of greater freedom, commonwealth, and equality") in the aftermath of WW2, from its antecedents in the Depression era citizen consumer, to purchaser every bit denizen in the backwash of the state of war, to the finish of the consumer republic, every bit the roles of consum Excellent history, deeply researched and convincingly argued. Cohen tracks the formation of a Consumer Democracy ("an economy, civilisation, and politics built around the promises of mass consumption, both in terms of textile life and the more than idealistic goals of greater freedom, democracy, and equality") in the backwash of WW2, from its antecedents in the Depression era citizen consumer, to purchaser equally citizen in the aftermath of the war, to the end of the consumer republic, as the roles of consumer and citizen mixed amid economical downturn and attacks on government regulation that begin in the mid-1970s. It is sobering history written clearly and straight. If the New Deal offered a place for the consumer in government and an additional wave of consumer activity in the 60s and 70s offered new consumer protections, the fear of economical downturn after WW2 and its inflow in the 70s limited the consumer'southward part. The government aided veterans later WW2, but that aid went overwhelmingly to the well educated (GI Bill for instruction did not help those who had not finished high school earlier the state of war) and amend capitalized.

Cohen uses her abode state of New Bailiwick of jersey equally case study to examine property taxes and education, residential home purchases, the rise of malls, and the refuse of urban neighborhoods. She notes the roles of women as citizen consumers and the difficult issues facing African-Americans every bit they sought places as both citizens and consumers. The entire projection of attempting mass consumption comes to an stop in the 70s and 80s equally unlike economic ends were pursued.

"Rather than seeking to describe all Americans into an expansive mass consumption web, Reaganites promoted upper-case letter investment, concentrated wealth, tax cutting, and personal savings over consumption, with the assumption that prosperity would 'trickle down' from new corporate and private wealth to ordinary American consumers."

"Whereas from the 1930s to every bit late as the 1970s, to refer to the consumer involvement was also to appeal to some larger public good beyond the private's self-interest, the ubiquitous invocation of the consumer today - equally patient, as parent, as social security recipient - often means satisfying the private interest of the paying customer, the combined consumer/citizen/taxpayer/voter whose greatest concern is, 'Am I getting my coin'due south worth?'"

It's a modify she describes, and even laments, but which she offers no remedy to undo. Pity that.

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Aug 06, 2019 Randy Wilson rated it it was astonishing

For a long time I have felt that Americans identify more as consumers than as citizens.  For me, the distinction is between agency around satisfying cloth interests rather than bureau to satisfy communal or societal interests.  This volume does a terrific job outlining how those roles were more intertwined than I realized.  Merely this volume does more than than that, information technology provides a very useful manner to sympathize American social club in the 20th and 21st centuries.

A key pivot is between the role of the denizen

For a long time I have felt that Americans identify more every bit consumers than every bit citizens.  For me, the distinction is between bureau around satisfying material interests rather than agency to satisfy communal or societal interests.  This book does a terrific job outlining how those roles were more intertwined than I realized.  But this book does more than that, it provides a very useful way to understand American gild in the 20th and 21st centuries.

A central pivot is betwixt the role of the citizen using her ability as a consumer to brand social changes.  Women in particular were a powerful force during the Great Depression to push for economic changes, especially around food costs.  African-Americans used their role as consumers to push white owned businesses servicing African-American consumers.  They would boycott those white businesses that didn't hire African-Americans often with positive results.

Subsequently the war, while African-Americans continued pushing their role as a consumer-citizens by sitting at white only lunch counters and asking to exist served to spend their money, whites, men and women withdrew from the citizen consumer function and bought into the consumer-simply office.  Were those two facts intertwined?  Whites reluctantly granting basic civil rights to African-Americans but hypocritically creating safe spaces that were difficult for African-Americans to reach?  Ah, the persistence and doggedness of White Supremacy.  Here order encouraged white people to escape urban centers for the suburbs where they shopped at non-public malls, cordoned off their communities from African American entrance, depriving them of safe communities and good schools.

Then starting in the sixties simply gaining speed in the seventies, marketers moved away from marketing on-mass to consumers and finer divided u.s.a. up into distinct niches, senior citizens, women, men, teenagers etc.  Every bit the whites exited from the public sphere on-mass, they were so further divided by mass marketing, creating insular tribes who signalling to each other through consumer purchases who they were and who they weren't.  The book is written before the age of social media but it describes the seeds of the toxic tribalism and mass manipulation that characterizes this era of Trump.

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October 28, 2013 Samuel rated it liked it

In Lizabeth Cohen'south A Consumers' Democracy: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America, the writer describes the United States following World War Ii as a "Consumers' Republic" that she defines as "an economy, civilization, and politics built around the promises of mass consumption, both in terms of material life and the more than idealistic goals of greater liberty, democracy, and equality." Although Cohen focuses the majority of her analysis of postwar America on the first 3 decades followin In Lizabeth Cohen's A Consumers' Democracy: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America, the author describes the United States following World War II every bit a "Consumers' Republic" that she defines as "an economic system, civilization, and politics built effectually the promises of mass consumption, both in terms of material life and the more than idealistic goals of greater freedom, republic, and equality." Although Cohen focuses the majority of her analysis of postwar America on the first iii decades post-obit the end of the war, she does offer a express amount of past trends toward a modern consumer civilisation from the pre-WWII era as well as some later cultural shifts that bring her analysis to the contemporary present—2003. In developing her definition of the postwar Consumers' Democracy, Cohen contends that the previously distinct spheres of Americans as political "citizens" and economic "consumers" combined into a new ideal of the "purchaser as citizen" in which "satisfying personal textile wants actually served the national interest, since economic recovery after a decade and a one-half of depression and war depended on a dynamic mass consumption economy." In other words, the postwar American climate encouraged consumers to buy not merely to satisfy personal desire merely also to benefit all Americans by stimulating the economic system. Whereas other historians covering the aforementioned menstruation accept stressed the Cold War and the Ceremonious Rights Move as the chief factors influencing the politics, economy, and culture of the era, Cohen demonstrates how her concept of the "Consumers' Republic" offers a more than comprehensive vision of the era. Not but does Cohen regard the counterculture's critiques of mass consumption equally evidence of its core standing in postwar gild, just she also offers examples of how it paradoxically discriminated confronting and gave means to empower women, African-Americans, and other minority groups at different times. ...more

Sep 17, 2013 Kaufmak rated it it was amazing

Lizabeth Cohen made her name with the New Deal, but information technology is this is by far the superior work, though I'm quite biased. This time frame is where I feel that the workers of the United States truly blew it. In exchange for political power, they pursued purchasing power, of fauna comforts, of as they called them at the time, "bread and butter issues." Wait, I don't fault workers for wanting a better life, a chance at that contumely ring of heart-class life, but the cost was far too high. They gave up Lizabeth Cohen made her name with the New Deal, but it is this is by far the superior work, though I'm quite biased. This time frame is where I experience that the workers of the United States truly blew information technology. In exchange for political power, they pursued purchasing power, of creature comforts, of as they called them at the time, "bread and butter issues." Look, I don't fault workers for wanting a better life, a chance at that brass ring of eye-class life, but the cost was far too high. They gave up any say in the production of products, leading to the political give-and-take moving from workers rights to workers benefits.

Cohen gives us a bully look at this shift from the perspective of beingness an activist consumer to a purchaser consumer; the political component of economic transactions being eliminated in favor of self-interest. It was the promotion of mass consumption as the "American Way" as opposed to thrift, cede and prudence of the Depression and World War eras. She also works the idea of citizen-consumerism of the African-American population and as a form of protestation, non rejecting mass consumption, but likewise using buying power (or non ownership) as a means to effect social alter.

Finally, Cohen examines the governments role in creating mass consumption as the platonic, namely through the GI Bill and FHA. Providing copious amounts of money to the millions of soldiers returning created i of the strongest economies the world had ever seen. Once that economic system began to irksome down, however, the real contend began. Would the government continue to subsidize spending or would it retreat? Every bit the 1970s illustrate, protecting the consumer was secondary to protecting producers and business.

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Feb 13, 2017 Sarah rated it it was amazing

A must-read from Lizabeth Cohen. Honey the focus through the lens of consumption history as opposed to the Cold War paradigm traditionally used. Capacity on suburbanization and shopping centers are especially good, equally is marketplace and political segmentation. Epilogue is a little too idealistic for me; I'd enjoy reading an updated essay past Cohen on her opinions now in 2017. A must-read from Lizabeth Cohen. Love the focus through the lens of consumption history as opposed to the Cold War paradigm traditionally used. Capacity on suburbanization and shopping centers are particularly adept, every bit is market and political segmentation. Epilogue is a fiddling also idealistic for me; I'd bask reading an updated essay past Cohen on her opinions now in 2017. ...more than

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