An All-Consuming Century

Reviews / Votes

The best survey yet written of the history of modern American consumer society... Avoiding the extremes of celebration and condemnation that too often pass for analysis, Cross's searching book is imbued with a generous concern for the revival of an active, democratic and participatory public sphere. -- Lawrence B. Glickman The Nation Cross shows how 'private, widespread and ephemeral commodity culture'has altered daily life, 'especially how people relate to nature and to one another.'The author of fine historical studies of various aspects of consumer culture, Cross is particularly well placed to undertake such a daunting task. Journal of American History By telling the story of how consumerism trumped social forces from Prohibition to the Simplicity movement, Cross brilliantly re-evaluates the bonds of family and community sold off to pay for the stuff with which we now populate our lives. San Francisco Chronicle It takes a historian to provide an appreciation of how far Americans have wandered from the days when consumerism was slightly suspect, and Gary Cross is superbly up to the task. -- Alan Wolfe The New Republic Cross has done prodigious work on the era that redefined the pursuit of happiness as the unbounded desire for goods. Building on an impressive range of scholarship, he lays out the sinews of a dazzling 100 years of American productivity chock full of the economic equivalents of flying rugs and magic lamps. -- Tom Engelhardt Los Angeles Times Book Review [An] absorbing cultural history of how Americans' personal and public identities have evolved in relationship with consumer goods. Publishers Weekly This readable modern history is enlivened. The Economist Thought-provoking... Cross has offered a perceptive view of how American identities have evolved and are perceived in relation to a thriving consumer culture. -- Margaret Walsh, University of Nottingham History The great merit of this book is that it characterizes consumerism as a social and political force. Unlike many critics who simply reduce consumerism to the individual pursuit of material comfort, Cross casts it as a compelling ideology that concretely expresses the major ideals that have guided the last century: liberty and democracy. -- Norman Wirzba Christian Reflection