Decoding Modern Consumer Societies

Modern societies are consumer societies, but rigorous research into this dimension has only begun fairly recently. The knowledge that historians and social scientists have produced is impressive, but also bewilderingly diverse and sometimes conflicting. This comprehensive volume seeks to take stock of their work and discuss future research agendas. Drawing on a wide range of studies of Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa, the contributions gathered here consider how political history, business history, the history of science, cultural history, gender history, intellectual history, anthropology, and even environmental history can help us decode modern consumer societies Front Matter....Pages i-ix Taking Stock and Forging Ahead: The Past and Future of Consumption History....Pages 1-13 Front Matter....Pages 15-15 Consumption History in Europe: An Overview of Recent Trends....Pages 17-35 Research on the History of Consumption in the United States: An Overview....Pages 37-49 The Hidden Consumer: Consumption in the Economic History of Japan....Pages 51-68 Consumption, Identities, and Agency in Africa: An Overview....Pages 69-86 Front Matter....Pages 87-87 The Business of Consumer Culture History: Systems, Interactions, and Modernization....Pages 89-109 Affluence and Sustainability: Environmental History and the History of Consumption....Pages 111-124 Consumption Politics and Politicized Consumption: Monarchy, Republic, and Dictatorship in Germany, 1900–1939....Pages 125-148 Consumption and Space: Inner-City Pedestrian Malls and the Consequences of Changing Consumer Geographies....Pages 149-170 Continental Europeans Respond to American Consumer Culture: Jürgen Habermas, Roland Barthes, and Umberto Eco....Pages 171-191 Front Matter....Pages 193-193 “God’s Own Consumers”: Billy Graham, Mass Evangelism, and Consumption in the United States during the 1950s....Pages 195-209 A Historical Herbal: Household Medicine and Herbal Commerce in a Developing Consumer Society....Pages 211-228 Science, Fruits, and Vegetables: A Case Study on the Interaction of Knowledge and Consumption in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Germany....Pages 229-248 An Ambivalent Embrace: Businessmen, Mass Consumption, and Visions of America in the Third Reich....Pages 249-265 Back Matter....Pages 267-287 "The history of consumption has experienced remarkable growth since the 1980s, driven by the interest of scholars in a variety of historical subdisciplines and other social scientific fields. This volume seeks to bring the resultant diversity of specialized approaches into one common discourse. It takes stock of what consumption history has accomplished in recent decades, what current research agendas are, and where research should go from here. Assembled and introduced by Hartmut Berghoff and Uwe Spiekermann of the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC, the volume brings together contributions from scholars in Europe and the United States, who discuss consumption patterns and their implications for the development of modern consumer societies. The geographical scope of these articles encompasses not only both sides of the North Atlantic, but also Argentina, Africa, and Japan. The articles are informed by a variety of approaches, including environmental history, political history, business history, the history of science, cultural history, gender history, intellectual history, and anthropology. The volume is aimed both at specialists in consumption and consumption history as well as at academic readers who wish to familiarize themselves with the field in the first place."