BR-The Birth of a Consumer Society

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ReviewAuthor(s): Ruth Schwartz CowanReview by: Ruth Schwartz CowanSource: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 90, No. 6 (May, 1985), pp. 1366-1368Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2779654Accessed: 08-04-2015 13:29 UTC

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AmericanJournal f Sociology

been clarified y this study, however, s the nature of the social andideological inks between workers' eisure activities nd the politicalhegemony f the two major parties.

The Birth of Consumer ociety: The Commercialization fEighteenth-Century ngland. By Neil McKendrick, ohn Brewer, nd J. H. Plumb.Bloomington: ndiana University ress, 1982. Pp. viii+ 345. $29.95.

Ruth Schwartz CowanState University f New York t Stony Brook

The three eminent historians whose names grace the title page of TheBirth of Consumer ociety re not editors f the volumebut ts authors.Each has composed ne section f the book, and each comes o the entraltopic from different irection, tilizing ifferent ourcematerials:NeilMcKendrick's ontribution which s by far he ongest) s economichis-tory; ohn Brewer's, olitical; nd J. H. Plumb's, ocial.Optimists illbepleased by the central message that McKendrick, Brewer, and Plumbwant to broadcast; ronically, o will pessimists.

The thesis of the book, briefly tated, s that there was a consumerrevolution n England during he 18th entury, revolution hat surpris-ingly)predated he advent of industrialization s well as the advent ofmass production. The authors refer o themselves s unrepentant e-mand-siders ho hope that the publication f their ssays will convinceother historians o stop concentrating n the upply ide of the ndustrialRevolution the facts, echnologies, nd impact n workers f altered nd

increased production) nd focus nstead on the demand side (the facts,technologies, nd impact on consumers f altered and increased con-sumption). As an unrepentant keptic, must confess hat they maketheir ase very well as far as they ake it, which, given the scarcity fother cholarly esearch with his focus, s not s far s they would ike asthey reely dmit).

McKendrickbegins, n a general hapter, y suggesting hat the con-sumer evolution as heralded arly n the century y Mandeville in TheFable of he Bees) and was confirmed nd endorsed ater n the entury yAdam Smith in The Wealth f Nations). n between, McKendrick otes,many commentators nd critics had noted rise n concernwith beingfashionable nd a newly ound bility n the part of the poorer ort oape their betters. Historical demographers nd economic historianshave suggested he possibility hat uch a revolution may have occurredby describing, or xample, the explosivegrowth f London during hecentury a consumer ociety needs a commercial apital), the steadygrowth f the population uring he century which uggests verall m-

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Book Reviews

provement n the standard of living, particularly ith regard to foodsupply), nd the apparent growth n domestic ather han foreign radeduring hecentury. n three ucceeding hapters, Commercialization fFashion, Commercialization f the Potteries, nd Commercializationof Shaving yes, shaving), McKendrickpresents massesof evidence todemonstrate hat ll the marketing, erchandising, nd advertising ech-niques that we may think f as unique products f 20th-century ankeecupidity planned obsolescence, ossleaders, fashionmagazines,massiveadvertising ampaigns, fancy showrooms, onscious pandering o theelite)were n fact nvented y English businessmen n the 18th entury.The crucial point of these chapters s not merely hat the ikes of Josiah

Wedgwood developed merchandising o a high and sophisticated rt-and had done so by the 1770s, when the ndustrial Revolutionwas justgetting p a head of steam and the steam engine had not even beenpatented-but that the businessmen new they were aiming at a massrather han an elite market nd succeeded n attracting t. On this astpoint the evidence for pottery s unmistakable nd affirming, ut some-what weaker for shaving preparations nd fashionable lothing. Forother consumer products, t is nonexistent t the moment due to thedearth f nvestigations), s McKendrick pparently nows. Nonetheless,his contribution eaves no doubt that Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, andGloria Vanderbilt would have been right t home n the 18th entury,notion hat houldmake overs of Handel and Sheraton-not to mentioncollectors f pricelessWedgwood-flip over n their ettees. Those whoare prone to blaming consumerism n American postindustrial api-talism hould take notice s well.

Brewer's ontibution s of a different rder ntirely. ommercializationrequires, t the very east, flexible nd secure ystems f credit, nd hedemonstrates hat hesedid not exist n Britain n the early 18th entury.By mid-century, radesmen nd artisans were banding ogether o create

new institutions among them, o-called redit lubs) and to bring polit-ical pressure o bear in an effort oth to stabilize and to expand theircredit resources. These clubs and the policies they dvocated were thebasis for the Wilkite movement f the 1780s and the subsequent radi-calism of the 1790s, Brewer argues, seeing the demand for equity npolitics s a form f opposition o both the client conomy nd the patri-cian politics hathad been dominant arlier. The clubs were lso consum-ers, apping up large quantities f beer they ftenmet n pubs), as well aspamphlets, uttons, nd souvenir ottery. his is why, Brewer uggests,brewers the pun is apparently oincidental), ublicans, printers, ndpotters were prime supporters f Wilkes. To put it another way, theradicals of the 18th entury ere the very ame people who approved ofand sold to the growing mass market.

Plumb treats s to a romp hrough he history f theaters, pas, horseracing, hildren's ashions, hildren's ooks, dog breeding, igeon fancy-ing yes, pigeons), nd gardening-all with the ntent f convincing hereader hat he eisurely ursuits nd symbols f tatus hathad once been

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AmericanJournal f Sociology

the exclusive province of an elite (private orchestras, aughters whocould watercolor, ormal ardens, nd so forth) iltered own to the mid-dle classes and perhaps ven ower by the nd of the 18th entury. akinghis argument ne step further, lumb suggests n his final hapter, TheAcceptance f Modernity, hat there was a synergistic elation etweenconsumerism nd the things onsumed; that the children's ooks pub-lished n such great numbers oward he end of the century ere ntendedto teach children o accept modern, progressive alues; and that thepractices f dog breeding, hoosing ybrid eeds, or collecting abinets ffossils id the ame for heir lders. A neat conclusion hat, which houldconvince historians and perhaps sociologists) hat there s more to the

history f the mundane han usually first meets he eye.Onedoes not have to read very ar nto his volume o realize hat n thegreat debate between the optimists nd the pessimists, McKendrick,Brewer, nd Plumb align themselves with he optimists. hey are intenton showing us that full-scale ndustrialization as the effect, ot thecause, of at least half-scale onsumerism nd that, on the whole, peoplewerebetter ff fter nd during han heywere before. ndeed, they eemto me to be implicitly aying that those 20th-century essimistswhodespise he effects f ndustrialization re the victims f both myopia ndself-contempt. et, ironically, he Birth of a Consumer ociety s likelyto giveaid and comfort osomeof those if uchthey e) shortsighted elf-haters. This would include especially hose who have argued, as E. P.Thompson does in The Making of the English Working lass, that thesecondhalf of the 18th entury as a kind of golden ge for egments fthe English rtisan nd laboring lasses, a period n which heyhad bothfinancial ecurity nd spending ower above the wildest dreams of theirpredecessors nd, grievously, heir descendants. McKendrick refers othis notion isparagingly s the prelapsarian myth p. 30), perhaps notrealizing hat n some significant ense his own evidence goesa longway

toward bolstering t.

The Managed Heart: Commercialization f Human Feeling. By ArlieRussellHochschild. Berkeley nd Los Angeles:University f CaliforniaPress, 1983.Pp. xii+307. $14.95.

Theodore D. KemperSt. John's University

Arlie Russell Hochschild n The Managed Heart has written wo booksand merged hem n a potpourri f text, ootnotes, nd appendices.Onebookdeals with irline light ttendants nd, to a lesser xtent, ollectionagencydunners s examplesof the commercialization f emotionalman-agement nd display. The second book contains Hochschild's heory femotions, ome of which was published n this Journal n 1979.

The first ook argues hat emotional abor i.e., deep acting n the

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BR-The Birth of a Consumer Society

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