Volume 51, Number 10 · June 10, 2004
The Shopper's Revolution
By Gordon S. Wood
The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence
by T.H. Breen
Oxford University Press, 380 pp., $30.00
Almost from the beginning of their history Americans have been great consumers of goods, and they still are. Jobs may be fleeing the country, wages and salaries may be flat, and capital investment may be sluggish, but Americans' remarkable propensity to consume goods continues. Consumption is the workhorse of the American economy, comprising nearly three quarters of the GDP, which is proportionally very much more than any other developed nation. Indeed, shopping at the mall now seems to be the American way of life. We have TV channels dedicated to home shopping, and with new magazines like Lucky and others on the way, we even have the birth of an entirely new genre of magazine, one devoted exclusively to selling goods.
Review, 5310 words
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