Keeping Up with the Joneses
Cód:
491_9780812236866
Keeping Up with the JonesesEnvy in American Consumer Society, 1890-1930Susan J. MattHow the Tenth Commandment (thats the one about coveting) became extinct is a tale of how the emotional style of this country mutated within the golden years of the nascent consumer economy, which Susan J. Matt . . . defines as the period between 1890 and 1930. She explains that we couldnt be a nation of consumers until we were given public license to envy.--New York TimesIn this lively short book, Susan J. Matt surveys the legitimization of consumer desire that paralleled the demise of Victorian culture and the rise of modern culture from 1890 to 1930.--Journal of American HistoryDrawing on memoirs, magazine articles, and sociological studies as well as reading between the lines of advertising copy, Matt gracefully evokes the pathos of consumerism in its formative years. . . . In highlighting the significance of envy as both the raw mental material and the ultimate product of consumer capitalism, this boldly argued book creatively extends the history of emotions.--American Historical ReviewA century ago many Americans condemned envy as a destructive emotion and a sin. Today few Americans expect criticism when they express envy, and some commentators maintain that the emotion drives the economy. This shift in attitude is Susan Matts central concern. Keeping up with the Joneses: Envy in American Consumer Society, 1890-1930 examines a key transition in the meaning of envy for the American middle class. Although people certainly have experienced envy throughout history, the expansion of the consumer economy at the turn of the twentieth century dramatically reshaped the social role of the emotion. Matt looks at how different groups within the middle class--men in white-collar jobs, bourgeois women, farm families, and children--responded to the transformation in social and cultural life.Keeping Up with the Joneses traces how attitudes about envy changed as department s
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