A History of American Consumption ─ Threads of Meaning, Gender, and Resistance

The United States has been near the forefront of global consumption trends since the 1700s, and for the past century and more Americans have been the world’s foremost consuming people. Informed and inspired by the literature from consumer culture theory, as well as drawing from numerous studies in social and cultural history, this book tells the story of the American consumer experience, through the continuities and changes in three cultural threads over 300 years of history from the colonial era to the present.

These threads recount the assignment of meaning to possessions and consumption, the gendered ideology and allocation of consumption roles, and resistance through anti-consumption thought and action. Brief but scholarly, this book provides a thought provoking, introduction to the topic of American consumption history informed by research in consumer culture theory. Examining and explaining the core phenomenon of product consumption and its meaning in the lives of Americans and how it changed over time, this forms a valuable contribution to the literature on the subjects of consumption and its causes and consequences.

Readable and insightful, it will be of interest to scholars and advanced students in consumer behaviour, advertising, and marketing and business history.

Terrence H.Witkowski is Professor of Marketing and Director of the International Business Program at the College of Business Administration, California State University, Long Beach. Born in Chicago, Terry earned a B.A. in History from Northwestern University (1970), an M.S. in Management from UCLA (1972), and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from U. C. Berkeley (1980). He to Full Professor at Long Beach in 1989. About half of Terry’s research is in the area of U.S. marketing and consumer history and the history of marketing thought. The remainder focuses on international topics, especially marketing in developing countries and cross-cultural consumer behavior. He has published over 100 journal articles, papers and abstracts in conference proceedings, book reviews, and other works including articles written (with co-authors) in German and Polish. Terry’s professional service includes History Section Editor and member of the Editorial Policy and Manuscript Review Boards for the Journal of Macromarketing. In 2010, he became Editor of the Journal. He is also on editorial review boards of the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Marketing Theory, and Management & Organizational History. Terry is a former President of the CHARM (Conference on Historical Analysis and Research in Marketing) Association.