Ancient Wisdom For Wealth Creation: Discover Financial Freedom To Live The Life You Deserve

Book Description

The 25th anniversary edition of a sociology classic-a groundbreaking look at the history of advertising and consumer culture as defining forces in American life.

Captains of Consciousness offers a historical look at the origins of the advertising industry and consumer society at the turn of the twentieth century. For this new edition Stuart Ewen, one of our foremost interpreters of popular culture, has written a new preface that considers the continuing influence of advertising and commercialism in contemporary life. Not limiting his critique strictly to consumers and the advertising culture that serves them, he provides a fascinating history of the ways in which business has refined its search for new consumers by ingratiating itself into Americans' everyday lives. A timely and still-fascinating critique of life in a consumer culture.

Customer Reviews:

Instrumental in broadening prospective .......2007-08-28

Stuart Ewen. Captains of Consciousness. Basic Books, 2001

Preface says that some reviewers labeled the book as "Marxist". They definitely missed the point. Feeling sympathetic towards Proletariat isn't Marxism exclusive trademark. Yet the book definitely lacks the depth of economic analysis and feeling of history (including actual class struggle) to fit the best standards of historical materialism. H. Zinn's "People's History of the USA" is much more monumental in collecting the social and economical realities of the US of the period.

As M. Schudson rightfully noted, the author of "Captains" too often takes the bluffing of second-rate admen at face value as the industry's real best practices. All this comes under obvious ideological inspiration of Marcuse.

Still the book seems to be the only study of advertising history that takes into consideration the working-class, including immigrants. Virtually all others suggest that there was no life outside of "Middle Class America".

Thus "Captains" are the must for any researcher or student in advertising sociology who wants to broaden his/her prospective.

Social Commentary from a Marxist .......2007-03-27

To appreciate this book you need have at least a general understand of the work of Karl Marx because the book is written from a Marxist perspective. From this 'perspective' the author is able to draw certain conclusions about American society (or a capitalist society) in which a reader may mistakenly infer as to the intent of the actual participants of that society. Its one thing to describe a particular outcome as a result of advertising and it's another thing to say that this outcome is the actual intent of advertising companies and businesses. A casual reader (or biased reader) may have trouble distinguishing between the two. The book title is a little misleading, saying `Captains' of Consciousness when the author does not focus on any 'specific' advertising company or business. The book cover is also a little misleading, with a picture of the store front NikeTown with heavily armed police. The book was written in 1976, no where in the book does it mention the Nike company and book contents does not convey any sense of power struggle thingy going on. Overall, it's an okay book for those who are familiar with the work of Marx and sociology in general. If you are not, then you would have no understanding of where the author is coming from or really the conclusion he is making. To sum I would say that is book is really just social commentary from a Marxist.
Here are some notes I've taken from the book (word for word) that I feel are most meaningful to me:

Modern advertising was concentrating upon a type of copy aiming to make the reader emotionally uneasy, to bludgeon him with the fact that decent people don't live the way he does

Mass industry, requiring a corresponding mass individual, cryptically named him "Civilized American" and implicated his national heritage in the marketplace. By defining himself and his desires in terms of the good of capitalist production, the worker would implicitly accept the foundations of modern industrial live. By transforming the notion of "class" into "mass", business hoped to create an "individual" who could locate his needs and frustrations in terms of the consumption of goods rather than the quality and content of his life (work).

In an attempt to massify men's consumption in step with the requirements of the productive machinery, advertising increasingly offered mass-produced solutions to "instinctive" strivings as well as to the ills of mass society itself. If it was industrial capitalism around which crowded cities were being built and which had spawned much of the danger to health, the frustration, the loneliness and the insecurity of modern industrial life, the advertising of the period denied complicity. Rather, the logic of contemporaneous advertising read, one can free oneself from the ills of modern life by embroiling oneself in the maintenance of that life. A 1924 ad for Pompeian facial product argued that: unless you are one woman in a thousand, you must use powder and rouge. Modern living has robbed women of much of their natural color.. taken away the conditions that once gave natural roses in the cheeks

The advertising which attempted to create the dependable mass of consumers required by modern industry often did so by playing upon the fears and frustrations evoked by mass society - offering mass produced visions of individualism by which people could extricate themselves from the mass - mass pseudo-demassification

Appealing to dissatisfaction and insecurities around the job, certain advertisements not only offered their products as a kind of job insurance, but intimate that through the use of their products one might become a business success - the capitalist notion of individual "self-fulfillment".

Much of American industrial development punctuated by attempts to channel thought and behavior into patterns which fitted the prescribed dimensions of industrial life

If you are advertising any product never see the factory in which it was made. Don't watch the people at work. Because when you know the truth about anything, the real, inner truth - it is very hard to write the surface fluff which sells it.

Speaking of seeming purposelessness of American industrial life itself, this lack of purpose in life has an effect on consumption similar to that of having a narrow life interest, that is, in concentrating human attention on the more superficial things that comprise much of fashionable consumption. The mass-produced goods of the marketplace were conceived of as providing and ideology of "change" neutralized to the extent that it would be unable to effect significant alteration in the relationship between individuals and the corporate structure. "Fatigue" with the futility of modern life might, if all other avenues of change are eradicated, be channeled toward a "fatigue... with apparel and goods used in one's immediate surroundings".
The concept of consumption as an alternative to other modes of change proliferates within business literature of the twenties. Given the recent history of anticaptialist sentiments and actions among the working class, the unpleasant possibility of "deeper changes" gave flight to a more pacified notion of social welfare that emanated from comsumerization. Recognizing the irreversibility of frustration among those who felt trapped in their surroundings, change would be "the most beneficent medicine in the world to most people", mass consumption is offered as a means of acting out such impulses within a socially controllable context. "To those who cannot change their whole lives or occupations, even a new line in a dress is often a relief. The woman who is tired of her husband or her home or a job feels some lifting of the weight of life from seeing a straight line change into a bouffant, or a gray pass into beige". The basic issues of industrial capitalism were fractionalized, isolated and reduced to trivialities in her formula. "Most people do not have the courage or the understanding to make deeper changes".
The logic of using consumption and mass leisure as ameliorations for boredom and social entrapment was not merely an underlying trend in advertising

Fear in itself is paralyzing; it robs one of the power of action. No one buys anything through fear, but rather through the instinct of self preservation or some other reaction that is almost inseparable from fear

AGAIN, if you don't understand what the hell the author is taking about then I don't recommend this book to you.

A thought provoking analysis of advertising/consumer culture.......2005-04-27

Ewen's book "Captains of Consciousness" is an insightful analysis of the rise of consumerism through advertising. He starts by covering the technique and effects of mass production. Of course workers were not pleased with their dehumanizing roles in line production that made them easily replaceable. Where industrialization standardized the means of production, there was a need to modernize the consumption end of the deal; this is where advertising came into play. The book focuses on the 1920's during the advent of mass advertising. Advertising provided a desire in the public to comsume a variety of new productions as well as ameliorated a society who had become increasingly upset with the wage system. Much of the later part of the book deals with how advertising was primarily meant for women, who had become the managers of the household and responsible for most consumption. Overall, the book is well worth the read, even though it is over 25 years old. Many of the advertising tactics that Ewen speaks of, such as the youthful ideal, are still present today.

Why are 3rd World nations far less materialistic? Read This........2003-12-07

If you've ever spent a considerable amount of time living in a 3rd World nation like I have, this book can help you understand why the USA has such an intense consumer culture which is almost unheard of in other such countries. I'm a big fan of capitalism, and this book makes a lot of sense. It's not a critique of capitalism nearly as much as an explanation of how it can shape cultures.

Consumer society revealed.......2001-08-24

This book is a penetrating analysis of the origins of our mass-culture, consumerist society. First, the author debunks the notion that consumerism was a natural technological development or clearly represents progress.

The author makes evident that the captions of industry sought to exert control over the entire social milieu beginning in the 1920s. Their foremost project was to define American life as consumerism. Consumption was marketed as far more than acquiring the essentials of life; it was a means to transform one's life: to achieve social esteem, to escape otherwise mediocre, humdrum lives. It was very much an individualistic approach to life in contrast to the traditional focus on small communities or extended families.

Industrialism was not easily swallowed by workers of the 19th and early 20th century. Traditional social bonds became irrelevant in factory production. Also under scientific management work was systematically deskilled and redefined by management. The strike wave of 1919 and the "Red Scare" of the early 20's convinced economic elites to set upon a course of pacification of discontented citizens in addition to measures of suppression.

The advertising in the 20's tried to convince that the mass production of consumable items was of tremendous benefit to society. The "freedom" of workers as consumers to transform their lives more than offset the actual loss of control over work processes. Every effort was made to see that mass-culture goods penetrated and hence defined all areas of life. Non-acceptance of that corporate-defined world was not viewed kindly. Virtually all non-market activity was cast as secondary, if not illegitimate. Buying superceded voting as the means to social remedy. Even families became purchasing units.

By the 1950s the transformation of the US to a consumerist culture was virtually complete. The penetration of corporate-owned television into all households ensured that alternatives to consumerism would not surface which was a continuation of the trend of centralization of all media outlets. The free-market and free trade ideologues of the 1990s are merely following in those same footsteps.

Book Description

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the whaling industry in New England sent hundreds of ships and thousands of men to distant seas on voyages lasting up to five years. In Captain Ahab Had a Wife, Lisa Norling taps a rich vein of sources—including women's and men's letters and diaries, shipowners' records, Quaker meeting minutes and other church records, newspapers and magazines, censuses, and city directories—to reconstruct the lives of the "Cape Horn widows" left behind onshore.

Norling begins with the emergence of colonial whalefishery on the island of Nantucket and then follows the industry to mainland New Bedford in the nineteenth century, tracking the parallel shift from a patriarchal world to a more ambiguous Victorian culture of domesticity. Through the sea-wives' compelling and often poignant stories, Norling exposes the painful discrepancies between gender ideals and the reality of maritime life and documents the power of gender to shape both economic development and individual experience.

Customer Reviews:

Better then Sena Jeter.......2000-10-27

While Lisa Norling certaintly did not write a book to change our times, she has written the best Ahab's wife book we have. Our only other real chioce seems to be Sena Jeter, and she is not an exeptional writer of any magnitude. So when choosing between the two, Lisa is the way to go.

Reflections from Earth Orbit (Apogee Books Space Series)

Average customer rating:

A 'regular guy' astronauts biography
I want everyone I care about to read this book.
Bravo Zulu (US Navy radio term for Good Job/Well Done)
Inspiring & Moving Story-A MUST READ
Someone should turn this book into a movie!!!

Reflections from Earth Orbit (Apogee Books Space Series)
Captain Winston E. Scott
Manufacturer: Collector's Guide Publishing, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1894959221

Book Description

A tremendous fascination and curiosity with space travel will be instilled in readers of this memoir by a former NASA astronaut. In a vivid recount of several events on board the space shuttles Endeavor and Columbia, the astronaut reflects on his life in space, emphasizing the routine aspects of the experience that earthbound people can relate to and appreciate. While his reflections intend to unravel the essence of living in space, they are also the starting point of a parallel tale that describes the author's perseverance in overcoming life's obstacles and becoming one of the select few to venture beyond the limits of Earth.

Customer Reviews:

A 'regular guy' astronauts biography.......2007-05-11

Okay- I have almost all the astronauts biographies and so called auto- biographies.
It is hard to impress me, most of the time they are over the top and you can feel the air whipping thru their scarves. Not true or impressive. But when I opened this 128 page book, my first impression was "Hmmm, thin?"

But upon reading this I was impressed. Captain Scott, who flew twice in space has done a great job -HIMSELF -in writing and telling the story of the contempoary astronaut experience. From building model airplanes and watching 'Sky King' to flying the Navy's F-14 Tomcat, becoming a NASA mission specialist and walking in space,This is a great book.
A quick read, and more importantly- a fun one.
You will enjoy this one.

I want everyone I care about to read this book........2005-09-06

A real American success story, told with simplicity and kindness by a real American hero. I want everyone I care about to read this book.

Bravo Zulu (US Navy radio term for Good Job/Well Done).......2005-08-29

"Reflections From Earth Orbit" by Winston E. Scott is a well written true story about Scott's Experiences as a NASA space shuttle astronaut and US Navy test pilot, with reflections back on his child hood and High School years. At one moment the reader feels like he is floating next to Scott in the total weightlessness of space and the next he can feel the struggles of a young black kid growing up in a poor section of Miami, trying to figure out what he wants to do when he grows up.

Unlike many successful people, Scott is very humble and states right from the beginning that "No one can accomplish anything of significance without the help and encouragement of others." He gives his High School band leader Mr. LeDue credit for making a phone call to the right people which insured that he was accepted into FSU after already receiving a rejection letter from the esteemed college. Scott states, "Had Mr. LeDue not made that phone call, I would most likely not have entered the navy, become an aviator, engineer and astronaut."

Reading this book is like sitting down with a friend who happens to be a retired astronaut and listening to him talk about space flight and some key events that led up to his magical life.

B.Z., Captain Scott, B.Z.

Inspiring & Moving Story-A MUST READ.......2005-08-26

I have thorougly enjoyed reading Capt. Scott's book. I think many people are like me in that they have always found Space very intriging, the next frontier. In Capt. Scott's story he takes you on your very own space adventure and you live it through his eyes. I found the mix of his personal story along with all the wonderful Space adventure to be most inspiring. He is truly living the American Dream. He dared to dream when his was a very young man and his dreams led him to the stars. You will not be able to put this book down and when you finish it you will feel like you can do anything to achieve your dreams! I can't wait for his next book!

Someone should turn this book into a movie!!!.......2005-08-26

I finished this book wishing there was a lot more to read - and thinking the book would make an absolutely OUTSTANDING movie! I'm a big fan of NASA and the space program, so I compare Captain Scott's book to Homer Hickam's book "Rocket Boys" (the book that the movie "October Sky" is based on). Both had a dream as young men and found a way to make them come true, both ended up with NASA, but the edge has to go to this book because you really get to see what happens over the course of a lifetime to result in someone actually getting to be an astronaut and fly two missions on the Space Shuttle! It's an incredible look at the experiences that shape a remarkable life. You also come away with a real sense that the most amazing achievements in life are truly the result of following your dreams and constantly making the most of the opportunities you're given. Add confidence, a positive outlook, and enough determination and you just might be able to fulfill your own dreams some day. Awesome book - 5 stars out of 5!

Average customer rating:

A Great Read!
Excellent book, well edited, very interesting

Captain's A Woman
DEMPSEY
Manufacturer: NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

A Great Read!.......1999-01-18

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - had a hard time putting it down, even. Captain Dempsey never whines about the difficulties she encountered as a female in a man's world - she just tells an interesting story.

Excellent book, well edited, very interesting.......1998-08-23

In addition to providing a timely and very interesting account of a woman's life in a man's world, this book gives us an "insider's" look at life on a sea-going cargo vessel and colorful accounts of the ports visited. Beautifully written and well edited. Go to sea with Deborah and Joanne! You'll enjoy the voyage!

GREAT DAYS OF SAIL: Reminiscences of a Tea Clipper Captain (Conway Classics)

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GREAT DAYS OF SAIL: Reminiscences of a Tea Clipper Captain (Conway Classics)
Andrew Shewan
Manufacturer: Conway Maritime Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 085177699X

Book Description

Captain Andrew Shewan was the last surviving tea clipper captain and in his seventies set down his experiences in The Great Days of Sail, his only book, published in the year he died. Brought up in Blackwall, his knowledge of the clippers was gathered from first-hand experience. He was on board almost every one of the British clippers he mentions and raced with many of them on the High Seas. He and his father and grandfather before him lived and worked through a period of the utmost importance for the history of sail. He tells his own story, and his descriptions are more vivid and real than the best academic historian has been able to produce.? ?Shewan discusses the tactics of passagemaking, evaluates the merits, or otherwise, of well-known clipper ships, and sets down numerous anecdotes to conjure up the flavour of the clipper days.

The Author: Captain Andrew Shewan was one of the best known of the skilful and daring captains of the clipper ship era. He personified the age described in this book. His grandfather was a whaling captain and his father rose to command the early 'crack' the Lammermuir. Shewan himself was appointed captain of the Norman Court at the age of twenty-three, racing from ports in China with the new season's cargo of tea.?

599th captain garners SDDC Junior Officer of the Year award.(Surface Deployment and Distribution Command): An article from: Translog

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599th captain garners SDDC Junior Officer of the Year award.(Surface Deployment and Distribution Command): An article from: Translog
Robyn Mack
Manufacturer: U.S. Military Traffic Management Command
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Translog, published by U.S. Military Traffic Management Command on January 1, 2005. The length of the article is 640 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: 599th captain garners SDDC Junior Officer of the Year award.(Surface Deployment and Distribution Command)
Author: Robyn Mack
Publication: Translog (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2005
Publisher: U.S. Military Traffic Management Command
Page: 42(1)

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The Age Of Big Business - A Chronicle Of The Captains Of Industry (1919)

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The Age Of Big Business - A Chronicle Of The Captains Of Industry (1919)
Burton J. Hendrick
Manufacturer: Hesperides Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1406714801

Book Description

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

THE AGE OF BIG BUSINESS A CHRONICLE OF THE CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY

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THE AGE OF BIG BUSINESS A CHRONICLE OF THE CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY
Burton J. Hendrick
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWHWJ6

Allegado a Arafat, me dio la orden.(Omar Akawi, capitán de un barco lleno de armas capturado)(TT: An Arafat ally gave me the order.)(TA: Omar Akawi, captain ... Breve): An article from: Siempre!

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Allegado a Arafat, me dio la orden.(Omar Akawi, capitán de un barco lleno de armas capturado)(TT: An Arafat ally gave me the order.)(TA: Omar Akawi, captain ... Breve): An article from: Siempre!
Jennifer Griffin
Manufacturer: Edicional Siempre
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008F36T4
Release Date: 2005-07-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Edicional Siempre on January 30, 2002. The length of the article is 646 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Allegado a Arafat, me dio la orden.(Omar Akawi, capitán de un barco lleno de armas capturado)(TT: An Arafat ally gave me the order.)(TA: Omar Akawi, captain of ship captured full of weapons)(Artículo Breve)
Author: Jennifer Griffin
Publication: Siempre! (Refereed)
Date: January 30, 2002
Publisher: Edicional Siempre
Volume: 48 Issue: 2537 Page: 56

Article Type: Artículo Breve

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Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business

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Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business
Harold C. Livesay
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K3ECJM

Product Description

A biography of Andrew Carnegie strictly in terms of his participation the the rise of big business. Carnegie was one of the "movers and shakers" of the industrial revolution, even though the industrial revolution was well underway when he came on the scene. He rose from the lowest possible societal position in dire poverty, to giant of industry which has so much to do with giant industry became. Surprisingly from his own beginning, he was a life long adversary of the trade union movement.

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