Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Winner of the Hagley Prize in Business History from The Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History ConferenceSelected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title

Originally published in 1999. Imagining Consumers tells for the first time the story of American consumer society from the perspective of mass-market manufacturers and retailers. It relates the trials and tribulations of china and glassware producers in their contest for the hearts of the working- and middle-class women who made up more than eighty percent of those buying mass-manufactured goods by the 1920s.

Based on extensive research in untapped corporate archives, Imagining Consumers supplies a fresh appraisal of the history of American business, culture, and consumerism. Case studies illuminate decision making in key firms--including the Homer Laughlin China Company, the Kohler Company, and Corning Glass Works--and consider the design and development of ubiquitous lines such as Fiesta tableware and Pyrex Ovenware.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. ix)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• 1 Cinderella Stories (p. 14)
• 2 China Mania (p. 52)
• 3 Beauty for a Dime (p. 89)
• 4 Fiesta! (p. 127)
• 5 Better Products for Better Homes (p. 168)
• 6 Pyrex Pioneers (p. 208)
• 7 Easier Living? (p. 249)
• Conclusion (p. 272)
• List of Abbreviations (p. 277)
• Notes (p. 283)
• Essay on Sources (p. 345)
• Index (p. 365)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Blaszczyk (Brown Univ.) draws on her years of experience on the research staff at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History to write this thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and carefully analyzed study of consumerism. With case studies of prominent glasswork and pottery firms, the author describes how they attempted to satisfy Americans' often fickle demand for goods. When comparing successes such as Homer Laughlin's Fiesta dinnerware with failures such as the Kohler Company's Color Ware line of plumbing fixtures, the ability to imagine the tastes of the consumer stands out. Most of this volume examines the rich variety of fashion intermediaries who relayed what consumers would buy to those who would manufacture it. These fashion intermediaries had to confront changes in markets, from male to female, rural to urban, and increasingly from elite to less well heeled purchasers. Like Philip Scranton's Endless Novelty: Specialty Production and American Industrialization, 1865-1925 (CH, Apr'98), Imagining Consumers informs readers about the majority of American firms--flexible producers who struggled to survive in the competitive environment of American business. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. D. Lindstrom; University of Wisconsin--Madison

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Regina Lee Blaszczyk is an assistant professor of history and American studies at Boston University.