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Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890-1945
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Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890-1945 Paperback - 2006

by Charles F. McGovern


From the publisher

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. In Sold American, Charles F. McGovern examines the key players active in shaping this cultural evolution: advertisers and consumer advocates. McGovern 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, McGovern 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, says McGovern, 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.

Details

  • Title Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890-1945
  • Author Charles F. McGovern
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition 1st Edition
  • Pages 552
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill
  • Date August 30, 2006
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780807830338 / 080783033X
  • Weight 2.04 lbs (0.93 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.25 x 6.12 x 1.51 in (23.50 x 15.54 x 3.84 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Consumer behavior - Political aspects -, Consumption (Economics) - Political aspects
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2006010728
  • Dewey Decimal Code 339.470