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A Century of American Icons 100 Products and Slogans from the 20th-Century Consumer Culture

Mary Cross

ISBN: 0-313-36124-X

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-36124-1

DOI:

256 pages

Greenwood Press

Publication: 10/30/2008

List Price: $20.00 (UK Sterling Price: £13.95)

Availability: Print on demand

Media Type: Paperback

Also Available: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Reviews:

"Starred Review ...This text would be an asset for a communication, advertising/marketing, consumer education, sociology, or popular American culture course....This book gives students a new insight into the history of our country. Highly Recommended."
—Library Media Connection August/September 2003
"This volume will be especially useful for libraries supporting academic programs in business, economics and American studies."
—Lawrence Looks at Books May 2003
"...[S]ucceeds in making readers aware of the changes in attitudes and perceptions towards class, gender, race, and lifestyles as reflected through advertising in the 20th-century US. Highly recommended. All collections."
—Choice 4/1/2003

Description: Dogs eat burritos, camels smoke cigarettes, and frogs drink beer. Welcome to the Century of the Consumer. In the 20th century, Americans were romanced by consumer culture, which in turn reflected the changing attitudes, priorities, and values of the country. This book compiles entries on 100 consumer products—ten per decade—that figured prominently in the rise of consumer culture in the United States, telling the story behind the century's most popular products, slogans, and symbols.

Dogs eat burritos, camels smoke cigarettes, and frogs drink beer. Welcome to the Century of the Consumer. In the 20th century, Americans were romanced by consumer culture, which in turn reflected the changing attitudes, priorities, and values of the country. This book compiles entries on 100 consumer products—ten per decade—that figured prominently in the rise of consumer culture in the United States, telling the story behind the century's most popular products, slogans, and symbols.

A unique format provides glimpses into American popular culture from each decade in the century. In addition to the history of advertising, economics, and the media, students will learn how perceptions of class, gender, and race were conveyed through advertising-and how those perceptions changed from 1900 to 2000. A-Z entries for each decade include bibliographic information on the product, as well as vivid illustrations showing the visual evolution of advertising icons and strategies throughout the century.

Table of Contents:

The Product as Icon
Icons of the 1900s
Icons of the 1910s
Icons of the 1920s
Icons of the 1930s
Icons of the 1940s
Icons of the 1950s
Icons of the 1960s
Icons of the 1970s
Icons of the 1980s
Icons of the 1990s
Selected Bibliography
Index

About the Author: MARY CROSS is the editor of Advertising and Culture: Theoretical Perspectives (Prager, 1996). She is also the author of Henry James: The Contingencies of Style (1993). She has taught at the University of Delaware, the City University of New York, and Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she was chair of the English Department. Cross is a former advertising copywriter.

LCC Class: 658


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