Buying power : a history of consumer activism in America /

Many may suspect that full-blown consumerism appeared with the onset of national advertising in the existing media during F. Scott Fitzgerald's era, glamorized in The Great Gatsby, and that its major feature is consumption. Glickman (Univ. of South Carolina; A Living Wage: American Workers and the Making of Consumer Society, CH, Apr'98, 35-4585) has a different perspective and suggests that the nation's consumerism is as old as the republic and that it is mixed with politics. As he mentions, some have presented the consumer as passive instead of active, but to the author, activism blends with consumerism. Thus, Glickman insists (as previous writers have not), "boycotting and other politicized forms of organized consumption have a history as long as the United States ... consumer activism has been the norm, not the exception ... a means to reconcile consumption and citizenship." He also perceives continuity between the past and present because today's consumer activism, in varied forms, "[replicates] many earlier strands of this American political tradition." For an insightful companion, consider Clayton A. Coppin and Jack High's The Politics of Purity: Harvey Washington Wiley and the Origins of Federal Food Policy, CH, Feb'00, 37-3501). Summing Up: Recommended. Most levels/libraries. P. D. Travis Texas Woman's University