false 566365 2 <P>The unqualified victory of consumerism in America was not a foregone conclusion. The United States has traditionally been the home of the most aggressive and often thoughtful criticism of consumption, including Puritanism, Prohibition, the simplicity movement, the '60s hippies, and the consumer rights movement. But at the dawn of the twenty-first century, not only has American consumerism triumphed, there isn't even an "ism" left to challenge it. <I>An All-Consuming Century</I> is a rich history of how market goods came to dominate American life over that remarkable hundred years between 1900 and 2000 and why for the first time in history there are no practical limits to consumerism.</P><P>By 1930 a distinct consumer society had emerged in the United States in which the taste, speed, control, and comfort of goods offered new meanings of freedom, thus laying the groundwork for a full-scale ideology of consumer's democracy after World War II. From the introduction of Henry Ford's Model T ("so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one") and the innovations in selling that arrived with the department store (window displays, self service, the installment plan) to the development of new arenas for spending (amusement parks, penny arcades, baseball parks, and dance halls), Americans embraced the new culture of commercialism -- with reservations. However, Gary Cross shows that even the Depression, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the inflation of the 1970s made Americans more materialistic, opening new channels of desire and offering opportunities for more innovative and aggressive marketing. The conservative upsurge of the 1980s and '90s indulged in its own brand of self-aggrandizement by promoting unrestricted markets. The consumerism of today, thriving and largely unchecked, no longer brings families and communities together; instead, it increasingly divides and isolates Americans.</P><P>Consumer culture has provided affluent societies with peaceful alternatives to tribalism and class war, Cross writes, and it has fueled extraordinary economic growth. The challenge for the future is to find ways to revive the still valid portion of the culture of constraint and control the overpowering success of the all-consuming twentieth century.</P> 553471 2000 An All-Consuming Century total:9|5:2|4:2|3:2|2:3|1:0| 9 30 22 1 5 0 false false Thu Jun 28 17:14:43 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 28 17:44:42 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Thu Nov 05 18:55:20 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 05 18:55:27 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Mon Nov 02 10:18:49 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 10:18:49 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 05 22:01:06 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 22:01:13 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Tue Nov 10 13:28:28 -0800 2009 Sun Oct 04 21:23:39 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 21:23:46 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Sep 26 16:17:46 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 17:51:30 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Sep 21 20:57:37 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 20:57:37 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jul 15 07:52:26 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 07:52:26 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jul 09 06:08:16 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 06:08:16 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Jun 17 19:42:49 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 19:42:49 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Apr 14 23:45:23 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 23:45:58 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sat Feb 07 14:31:19 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 14:31:19 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jan 28 15:19:30 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 15:19:30 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jan 06 11:40:14 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 06 11:40:14 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Dec 23 05:45:50 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 05:45:50 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Mon Oct 13 12:33:40 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 13 12:33:40 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Sun Sep 14 16:04:35 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 16:04:35 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Thu Dec 20 16:06:46 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 20 16:06:46 -0800 2007 0 0 false false Thu Dec 13 23:00:05 -0800 2007 Thu Dec 13 23:00:05 -0800 2007 0 0 false false Fri Aug 24 17:50:11 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 24 17:50:11 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=3122990