Waubonsee Community College

The anxieties of affluence, critiques of American consumer culture, 1939-1979, Daniel Horowitz

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-317) and index

index present

non fiction

The anxieties of affluence

bibliography

52720717

Daniel Horowitz

"This book charts the reactions of prominent American writers to the unprecedented prosperity of the decades following World War II. It begins with an examination of Lewis Mumford's wartime call for "democratic" consumption and concludes with an analysis of the origins of President Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech of 1979. Between these bookends, Daniel Horowitz documents a broad range of competing views, each in its own way reflective of a deep-seated ambivalence toward consumer culture - a persistent but shifting tension between a commitment to self-restraint and the pursuit of personal satisfaction through the acquisition of commercial goods and experiences." "In his final chapter, Horowitz examines the writings of three leading intellectuals - Daniel Bell, Robert N. Bellah, and Christopher Lasch - whose views shaped President Carter's response to the energy crisis of the 1970s. An epilogue carries the story forward to the turn of the new century, when Americans found themselves grappling with the political and cultural implications of a new wave of prosperity."--Jacket

critiques of American consumer culture, 1939-1979

Chastened consumption: World War II and the campaign for a democratic standard of living -- Celebratory émigrés: Ernest Dichter and George Katona -- A southerner in exile, the Cold War, and social order: David M. Potter's People of plenty -- Critique from within: John Kenneth Galbraith, Vance Packard, and Betty Friedan -- From the affluent society to the poverty of affluence, 1960-1962: Paul Goodman, Oscar Lewis, Michael Harrington, and Rachel Carson -- Consumer activism, 1965-1970: Ralph Nader, Martin Luther King Jr., and Paul R. Ehrlich -- The energy crisis and the quest to contain consumption: Daniel Bell, Christopher Lasch, and Robert Bellah -- Three intellectuals and a president: Jimmy Carter, "Energy and the crisis of confidence" -- The response to affluence at the end of the century