Book Description
The years immediately following the Second World War witnessed a dramatic transformation of America's working-class suburbs, driven by an unprecedented post-war prosperity and a burgeoning consumer culture. Chrome and neon were the new currency in this newly vital consumer culture, and no post-war consumer products trafficked more heavily in this currency than diners, bowling alleys, and trailer parks. Through these three distinctively American institutions, Andrew Hurley examines the struggle of Americans with modest means to attain the good life after two long decades of depression and war. He tells this story of the humble origins, explosive growth, and gradual, sad decline of the diner, bowling alley, and trailer park in expert fashion. This is cultural and social history that knows how to entertain.
Customer Reviews:
working class dreams in the consumer paradise.......2003-05-17
Hurley offers an insightful, thought-provoking, and at times disturbing picture of three emblematic popular institutions of post-war America. While all came out of working class roots and emerged as popular features in the wider popular culture of the 1950s, each industry found different ways to negotiate its relationship with its working class roots and its aspiration for access to a wider mass market. Hurley shows how working class Americans, emerging from the economic trauma of poverty and the Great Depression, sought through consumer culture to redefine themselves as middle class, even as middle class Americans often created new kinds of fashion snobbery as a way of redefining the new aspiring working class/middle class as crass or vulgar.
Hurley explores the emergence of the new mass market that emergence with relative working class affluence after the Second World War, while properly noting the limitations of that affluence. He also explores how this new mass consumer market, shaped by advertising constructs of domesticity and family togetherness, both limited, and even excluded women and minorities (especially African-Americans, who continued to be the target of the most vigorous economic discrimination and exclusion) through the 1960s and 1970s, even as the mass market ideal was crumbling under new challenges generated during the 1960s that sprang from many of the impulses unleased by American consumerism itself.
This is a fascinating and indeed entertaining work. Yoy can learn a lot about the social and cultural history of diners, bowling alleys, and trailer parks, but beyond that, you can get a valuable insight into some of the larger forces that have shaped who we are as Americans, both for better and for worse.
Social history along the highway.......2002-04-10
This is essentially a book of social history, although it brings together the disciplines of economic history, gender studies, architecture, and popular culture. Hurley discusses how diners, bowling alleys, and trailer parks reflected the social values of the 1950s and 1960s. The chapters on the three building types go into excruciating detail; for example, every nuance of diner design and operation is discussed and scrutinized for meaning. The book would have been improved if the author had covered more building types in the same number of pages.
Hurley's overriding theme is laudable: On the outskirts of most towns, there is a region that constituted that community's "commercial strip" during the 1950s and 1960s, before America discovered fast food, shopping malls, and big-box stores. Most of us drive through these past-their-prime commercial strips every day, seeing nothing but obsolete buildings. Hurley points out that these obsolete commercial strips are the equivalent of archeological sites, speaking volumes about how family values have evolved during the past half-century.
Book Description
Nobody worried about "teenagers" prior to the 1940s. In fact, as a culturally or economically defined entity they did not exist. But in the 50 years since the last world war, when the term was first coined, teenagers have had an enormous impact on American culture. They have reshaped our language, our music, our clothes. They have changed forever the way we respond to authority. They have become a $200 billion consumer group avidly courted by marketers. And they have changed our culture, which will never again treat their demographic group merely as young adults. Teenagers ranges widely across American culture of the middle twentieth century to depict the shifting characterizations of teens from invisible young adults to young soldiers in training, to bobby soxers and zoot suiters, to rock 'n' rollers and juvenile delinquents, from hippies to savvy consumers. Grace Palladino examines everything from Andy Hardy and Elvis Presley to Seventeen magazine and MTV. She challenges those who decry teenage hedonism and immorality today, showing that modern disaffected teenagers, as in the past, are responding just as much to hypocritical adult behavior as to a commercial cult of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.
Customer Reviews:
Big Book For A Short Subject But Thought-Provoking.......2005-09-26
The story of how the unique culture of teenagers came to rise in the 20th century. Teenagers, the most gossiped-about, the most storied, envied, disliked, discriminated against, and misunderstood group of all modern western humans, finally have a book of their own that is sympathetic to their cause. (Although I doubt few will ever read it.) Palladino cites the social injustices teens face, reminds us how short a time the word "teenager" has been in our cultural lexicon, and studies the way teens have thought, spoken, acted, and influenced popular society throughout time. This is an unexpectedly scholarly yet interesting book that takes the time to go out on a limb and side with the rebellious youth among us, and also to speculate on how the teen years are changing and how they might ultimately be in the near future. I liked Teenagers: An American History well enough to buy a copy after I'd finished the one I happened to get from the local library.
Book Description
This book charts the reactions of prominent American writers to the unprecedented prosperity of the decades following World War II. It begins with an examination of Lewis Mumford's wartime call for "democratic" consumption and concludes with an analysis of the origins of President Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech of 1979. Between these bookends, Daniel Horowitz documents a broad range of competing views, each in its own way reflective of a deep-seated ambivalence toward consumer culture—a persistent but shifting tension between a commitment to self-restraint and the pursuit of personal satisfaction through the acquisition of commercial goods and experiences.
To explain why affluence has caused so much anxiety in America, Horowitz focuses on key works of cultural criticism that stimulated public debate during what many have called the golden age of modern American capitalism. Some of these books, such as John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Affluent Society," Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," and Ralph Nader's "Unsafe at Any Speed," are well known, while others, like Ernest Dichter's "The Psychology of Everyday Living," David Morris Potter's "People of Plenty," and Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb," may be less familiar. Still others, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Where Do We Go from Here?," have been overlooked as critiques of American consumerism. All were enormously influential in framing popular discussion of a range of troubling issues, from the relationship between morality and prosperity to the challenges the spread of wealth posed to the national character, to the natural environment, and to those who did not share in the country's bounty.
In his final chapter, Horowitz examines the writings of three leading intellectuals—Daniel Bell, Robert N. Bellah, and Christopher Lasch—whose views shaped President Carter's response to the energy crisis of the 1970s. An epilogue carries the story forward to the turn of the new century, as Americans find themselves grappling with the political and cultural implications of a new wave of prosperity.
Customer Reviews:
Complaints about American Consumerism.......2005-12-11
In the United States there is no question that we live in a culture of consumption. We change cars long before they are work out, and our thrift shops are filled with clothes showing almost no wear. And we are overweight.
The complaints about American consumer habits have grown just about as fast. This book examines that critism from the end of the depression until 1979. The book has five broad themes:
. the persistence of highly charged, moralistic attitudes to consumer culture
. how certain writers embraceed psychology as an explanation for and a solution to social problems
. the factors that determined the power of books to set the terms of public discussion
. the role of intellectuals in shaping social movements, public conversations and policy considerations
. the hegemony of the of the cold war consentsus was replaced by new events and ideas challenged its legitimacy.
The book ends in 1979 with the energy crisis and the thought that the 'good life' was over. After that came the longest period of growth in our history, various recessions, booms and bust on Wall Street, the dot.coms, SUVs and a lot more critism.
Book Description
Celebrated as new consumers and condemned for their growing delinquencies, teenage girls emerged as one of the most visible segments of American society during and after World War II. Contrary to the generally accepted view that teenagers grew more alienated from adults during this period, Rachel Devlin argues that postwar culture fostered a father-daughter relationship characterized by new forms of psychological intimacy and tinged with eroticism.
According to Devlin, psychiatric professionals turned to the Oedipus complex during World War II to explain girls' delinquencies and antisocial acts. Fathers were encouraged to become actively involved in the clothing choices and makeup practices of their teenage daughters, thus domesticating and keeping under paternal authority their sexual maturation. In Broadway plays, girls' and women's magazines, and works of literature, fathers often appeared as governing figures in their daughters' sexual coming-of-age. It became the common sense of the era that adolescent girls were fundamentally motivated by their Oedipal needs, dependent upon paternal sexual approval, and interested in their fathers' romantic lives. As Devlin demonstrates, the pervasiveness of depictions of father-adolescent daughter eroticism on all levels of culture raises questions about the extent of girls' independence in modern American society and the character of fatherhood during America's fabled embrace of domesticity in the 1940s and 1950s.
Customer Reviews:
FASCINATING ANALYSIS OF AN INVISIBLE TREND.......2005-06-18
The dynamics of father-daugther relationships are usually so commonplace as to be unremarkable. Devlin delves beyond the surface to makes them not only new but vastly deeper and more interesting. From WWII on she shows the reader how a new idea of "normal" was created. A must for historians, feminists, and anyone else interested in the nuances of how fathers and daughters relate.
Book Description
Boost Your Energy Naturally enables you to identify what's draining your energy and reclaim you zest for life. Work out when you are at your most vital and why. Learn how to combat negative thought processes, stress and poor sleep patterns that can adversely affect all areas of your life. A chapter on nutrition offers a specially devised eating-for-energy plan, while another illustrates the benefits of exercise and offers simple breathing techniques for maximizing oxygen intake. Learn to tap into universal energy fields to enhance your own creative and physical energy, and benefit from practical advice and techniques for getting your 'get up and go' back on track as quickly and easily as possible.
Customer Reviews:
One of the best and most helpful books ever........2004-08-31
All I can say is that this is such a helpful and useful book. It is well laid out and designed, with great pictures and color, and the tips and advice is wonderful. I read it everyday because I am always under so much stress at work and school, and this has taught me how to channel that stress into relaxation. A must read!!!
Average customer rating:
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Consumer Politics: Protecting Public Interests on Capitol Hill (Contributions in Political Science)
Ardith Maney , and
Loree Bykerk
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Shopping & Commerce
| Reference
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
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General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
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| Books
Lobbying
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| Subjects
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Federal Government
| Government
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General
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Consumer Guides
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General
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| New & Used Textbooks
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All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
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Business & Investing
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
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Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
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Reference
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
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ASIN: 0313264287 |
Book Description
This volume analyses the interaction of business lobbyists, consumer critics, and government officials for the first time in 20 years. It offers important new insights and revisionist views about the impact of consumer "issue networks" in the making of public policy in Congress during the 1980s and 1990s. It shows how consumer groups lobby Congressional committees and their leaders and staffers to reform legislation in areas of critical concern. This text for undergraduate and graduate courses in American politics, business and government, lobbying and interest group behavior, and political sociology covers the expanding range and activities of consumer lobbyists in recent years and gives a short history of their role in Congressional decisionmaking from the Progressive and New Deal eras to the present. The study details their activities in terms of civic outcomes (campaign finance, intervenor funding, freedom of information); consumer protection (impure food, unsafe drugs, autos, toys, and household appliances); economic regulation and deregulation (airlines, financing services, trucking, and telecommunications); and highly politicized pocketbook issues (health care, tax, energy, income, and trade policies). Journalists, activists, and students of politics, business administration, and sociology will find the conclusions about consumers, businesses, and Congressional decisionmaking and the arguments for government and citizen activism arresting.
Average customer rating:
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Consumer Research Study on Book Purchasing, 1998
Npd Group Staff
Manufacturer: Book Industry Study Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Macroeconomics
| Economics
| Business & Investing
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General
| Books & Reading
| Literature & Fiction
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General
| Criticism & Theory
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Almanacs & Yearbooks
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| Almanacs
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General
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| Reference
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| Books
ASIN: 0940016753 |
Average customer rating:
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Consumer Sourcebook
Manufacturer: Gale Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Consumer Behavior
| Marketing & Sales
| Business & Investing
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Consumer Guides
| Reference
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| Books
General
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ASIN: 0810391201 |
Average customer rating:
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Funding Sources for Community and Economic Development 1998: A Guide to Current Sources for Local Programs and Projects (Funding Sources for Community and Economic Development)
Oryx Press
Manufacturer: Oryx Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Economics
| Business & Investing
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| Books
| Agricultural
| Commercial Policy
| Comparative
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General
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Consumer Guides
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ASIN: 1573560863 |
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Shiftwork, Capital Hours and Productivity Change
Murray F. Foss
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Labor Policy
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
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General
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ASIN: 0792399552 |
Book Description
This volume deals with shiftwork-work that is performed during other than normal daytime hours. Shiftwork is a characteristic of economic life in the United States and abroad and has increased in importance over the years. The book examines changes in weekly hours worked by fixed capital over long periods of time, and the significance of those changes in the measurement of long-run productivity change. The analysis provides a link between a technology rooted in physical capital with one rooted in human capital.
Shiftwork, Capital Hours and Productivity Change, which emphasizes empirical research, should be of interest because of its use of original data, because of the progressive nature of the research, and because it ultimately brings that research to bear on a number of issues that are in the forefront of public discussion. Making use of the new multifactor productivity statistics that are now being published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for detailed (two-digit) manufacturing industries for the postwar period, the author shows the changing influence of plant-hour change from the 1920s to the 1980s.
Average customer rating:
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Extending European Cooperation: The European Union and the 'New' International Trade Agenda
Alasdair R. Young
Manufacturer: Manchester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Exports & Imports
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
International
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
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General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
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General
| International
| Business & Investing
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General
| Europe
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General
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Relations
| International
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Regional Planning
| Politics
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International Security
| Freedom & Security
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ASIN: 0719062721 |
Book Description
The specific focus of this book is on why and how the member governments of the European Union engage in international negotiations concerning the 'new' issues of trade in services and foreign direct investment. The key issue is that the EU's member governments have repeatedly sought to cooperate in such negotiations, despite significant differences in their economic interests and without having previously committed themselves to cooperate. This book has both theoretical and practical implications for EU policy-making.
Books:
- Directory of United States Importers 1999 (Serial)
- Disbursement Handbook
- Encyclopedia of Associations: Geographic And Executive Indexes (Encyclopedia of Associations, Vol 2: Geographic and Executive Index)
- Executive Blues: Down and Out in Corporate America
- From .Com to .Profit: Inventing Business Models That Deliver Value and Profit
- Gifting to People You Love: The Complete Family Guide to Making Gifts, Bequests, and Investments for Children
- Good directors ignore the stock price: it's too distracting, and it's not what really matters anyway.(SUTTON'S LAWS)(Column): An article from: Directors & Boards
- Harrap's French and English Business Dictionary
- Historical Dictionary of the International Monetary Fund
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
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