Advertising And The Transformation Of American Society 1865 1920

In the period between 1865 to 1920, as America shifted from a rural-farming economy to urban-manufacturing, a major transformation also occurred in the behavior of the country's consumers. This change is perhaps best illustrated in the advertisements that appeared in popular magazines. They began by simply informing consumers of the cost and availability of a product, but, by 1920, they were projecting an image that defined the American dream in terms of a consumption ethic. In this historical analysis of advertisements, James Norris explores this transformation of society and its ads, and the role that advertising played in developing a national market for consumer goods, creating demand for mass-produced items, and shifting the consumption habits of Americans. Focusing primarily on popular journals and magazines with national circulations, Norris traces how, by the 1920s, America had become a society in which consumption and spending had replaced old virtues. He examines a number of issues affecting this change, including how national markets developed, how consumers were convinced to buy products they had never seen before, what appeals manufacturers used to build markets, and how consumers were persuaded to purchase items that had previously been produced locally or in the home. Other factors that played a role in the transformation are also considered, such as the breakdown of localism, an increasingly educated citizenry, the potential for mass production, and a growth in per-capita income. Whenever possible, the advertisements themselves have been quoted and reproduced, fully illustrating Norris' premise that they are mirrors of the society that produced them. This study will be an important resource for courses in business history, economics, women's studies, and the history of advertising, as well as a valuable addition to college, university, and public libraries.

In the period between 1865 to 1920, as America shifted from a rural-farming economy to urban-manufacturing, a major transformation also occurred in the behavior of the country's consumers. This change is perhaps best illustrated in the advertisements that appeared in popular magazines. They began by simply informing consumers of the cost and availability of a product, but, by 1920, they were projecting an image that defined the American dream in terms of a consumption ethic. In this historical analysis of advertisements, James Norris explores this transformation of society and its ads, and the role that advertising played in developing a national market for consumer goods, creating demand for mass-produced items, and shifting the consumption habits of Americans. Focusing primarily on popular journals and magazines with national circulations, Norris traces how, by the 1920s, America had become a society in which consumption and spending had replaced old virtues. He examines a number of issues affecting this change, including how national markets developed, how consumers were convinced to buy products they had never seen before, what appeals manufacturers used to build markets, and how consumers were persuaded to purchase items that had previously been produced locally or in the home. Other factors that played a role in the transformation are also considered, such as the breakdown of localism, an increasingly educated citizenry, the potential for mass production, and a growth in per-capita income. Whenever possible, the advertisements themselves have been quoted and reproduced, fully illustrating Norris' premise that they are mirrors of the society that produced them. This study will be an important resource for courses in business history, economics, women's studies, and the history of advertising, as well as a valuable addition to college, university, and public libraries.

Fables of Abundance ranges from the traveling peddlers of early modern Europe to the twentieth-century American corporation, exploring the ways that advertising collaborated with other cultural institutions to produce the dominant aspirations and anxieties in the modern United States.

It has become impossible to imagine our culture without advertising. But how and why did advertising become a determiner of our self-image? Advertising the American Dream looks carefully at the two decades when advertising discovered striking new ways to play on our anxieties and to promise solace for the masses. As American society became more urban, more complex, and more dominated by massive bureaucracies, the old American Dream seemed threatened. Advertisers may only have dimly perceived the profound transformations America was experiencing. However, the advertising they created is a wonderfully graphic record of the underlying assumptions and changing values in American culture. With extensive reference to the popular media—radio broadcasts, confession magazines, and tabloid newspapers—Professor Marchand describes how advertisers manipulated modern art and photography to promote an enduring "consumption ethic." This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986. It has become impossible to imagine our culture without advertising. But how and why did advertising become a determiner of our self-image? Advertising the American Dream looks carefully at the two decades when advertising discovered striking new w

Designed as a core textbook for courses in Advertising and Society, "Advertising, Society, and Consumer Culture" develops an integrated perspective that gives students a framework for understanding past, present, and future issues in advertising communications. Chapter contents cover the entire range of social, political, cultural, regulatory, and economic issues that surround advertising and its role in modern society. The many social issues addressed include advertising and gender stereotyping, advertising to vulnerable audiences, and the distribution of wealth in consumer society. "Advertising, Society, and Consumer Culture" intertwines the development of the consumer culture with its coverage of the historical, political, regulatory, and ethical issues of advertising. It includes clear, comprehensive tables that chronicle historical developments and key legal cases. The text is readable for undergraduates but provides enough depth to serve as a graduate-level text. Including extensive notes and a bibliography, it can be adopted independently, or alongside its companion volume, "Readings in Advertising, Society, and Consumer Culture".

For a full list of entries and contributors, a generous selection of sample entries, and more, visit the The "Advertising Age" Encyclopedia of Advertising website. Featuring nearly 600 extensively illustrated entries, The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising provides detailed historic surveys of the world's leading agencies and major advertisers, as well as brand and market histories; it also profiles the influential men and women in advertising, overviews advertising in the major countries of the world, covers important issues affecting the field, and discusses the key aspects of methodology, practice, strategy, and theory. Also includes a color insert.

In America, we are eager to claim ownership: our homes, our ideas, our organs, even our own celebrity. But beneath our nation’s proprietary longing looms a troublesome question: what does it mean to own something? More simply: what is property? The question is at the heart of many contemporary controversies, including disputes over who owns everything from genetic material to indigenous culture to music and film on the Internet. To decide if and when genes or culture or digits are a kind of property that can be possessed, we must grapple with the nature of property itself. How does it originate? What purposes does it serve? Is it a natural right or one created by law? Accessible and mercifully free of legal jargon, American Property reveals the perpetual challenge of answering these questions, as new forms of property have emerged in response to technological and cultural change, and as ideas about the appropriate scope of government regulation have shifted. This first comprehensive history of property in the United States is a masterly guided tour through a contested human institution that touches all aspects of our lives and desires. Stuart Banner shows that property exists to serve a broad set of purposes, constantly in flux, that render the idea of property itself inconstant. Despite our ideals of ownership, property has always been a means toward other ends. What property signifies and what property is, we come to see, has consistently changed to match the world we want to acquire.