San Antonio College Library

"By focusing on the consumer behavior of Midwestern farmers, Sowing the American Dream provides illustrative examples of how Americans came to terms with the economic and ideological changes that swirled around them. From the formation of the Grange to the advent of mail-order catalogs, the buying patterns of rural Midwesterners set the stage for the coming century." "Carefully documenting the rise and fall of the powerful purchasing cooperatives,...

Synopsis: In this important book, a host of noted environmentalists and business ethicists examine ethical issues in consumption from the points of view of environmental sustainability, economic development, and free enterprise. These issues are at the forefront of international concerns about global legislation and regulation. The contributors challenge the reader to think carefully about how environmental sustainability, global economic development,...

This is a follow-up book to the author's Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, which had a large influence on both government policy and public opinion of how we should plan our energy for the future. This book faces up to the impacts of making materials in the 21st century. We are already making materials well, but demand keeps growing and we need to plan for a sustainable material future. The steel and aluminium industries alone account for nearly...

"Stealing Innocence is a methodically designed portrait of the increasing elimination of childhood for modern American youth. Giroux, a prolific social critic regarding issues of the late twentieth century, analyzes the proselytizing of corporations toward children. In the first half of the book, he uses the vivid imagery of beauty pageants for young girls, the onset of the visual appeal of the "heroin chic" look by Calvin Klein and other fashion...

A guide on how businesses can profit from middle-market revenues reveals what motivates customers, identifies accessible luxury items, and shares the success stories of several "New Luxury" companies.

Annotation Annotation.

A social and political history describes how mass consumption and the pursuit of prosperity transformed American life during the second half of the twentieth century.

An examination of the effects of capitalism on American culture and society reveals how consumer capitalism overproduces goods, targets children as consumers, and replaces public goods with private commodities.

"Keeping Up with the Joneses traces how attitudes about envy changed as department stores, mail-order catalogs, magazines, movies, and advertising became more prevalent, and the mass production of imitation luxury goods offered middle- and working-class individuals the opportunity to emulate the upper-class life. Between 1890 and 1910 moralists sought to tame envy and emulation in order to uphold a moral economy and preserve social order. They criticized...