The twentieth century was, by any reckoning, the age of the child in America. Today, we pay homage at the altar of childhood, heaping endless goods on the young, reveling in memories of a more innocent time, and finding solace in the softly backlit memories of our earliest years. We are, the proclamation goes, just big kids at heart. And, accordingly, we delight in prolonging and inflating the childhood experiences of our offspring. In images of the naughty but nice Buster Brown and the coquettish but sweet Shirley Temple, Americans at mid-century offered up a fantastic world of treats, toys,...
The twentieth century was, by any reckoning, the age of the child in America. Today, we pay homage at the altar of childhood, heaping endless goods on...
The unqualified victory of consumerism in America was not a foregone conclusion. The United States has traditionally been the home of the most aggressive and often thoughtful criticism of consumption, including Puritanism, Prohibition, the simplicity movement, the '60s hippies, and the consumer rights movement. But at the dawn of the twenty-first century, not only has American consumerism triumphed, there isn't even an "ism" left to challenge it. An All-Consuming Century is a rich history of how market goods came to dominate American life over that remarkable hundred years between 1900...
The unqualified victory of consumerism in America was not a foregone conclusion. The United States has traditionally been the home of the most aggress...
In 1937, the Mass-Observation organization was founded to record the everyday life of ordinary people for a popular audience. The mass-observers followed labourers, from the routine of work and home life in the Lancashire town of Bolton, to Blackpool. They recorded what they saw, hoping to discover what attracted workers to this crowded temple of Victorian culture and also to transcend class prejudice and sociological theory. The annual pilgrimage to Blackpool was at the centre of the annual cycle of renewal and release in working-class life.
In 1937, the Mass-Observation organization was founded to record the everyday life of ordinary people for a popular audience. The mass-observers follo...
To sort out who's who and what's what in the enchanting, vexing world of Barbies(R) and Ninja Turtles(R), Tinkertoys(R) and teddy bears, is to begin to see what's become of childhood in America. It is this changing world, and what it unveils about our values, that Gary Cross explores in Kids' Stuff, a revealing look into the meaning of American toys through this century.
Early in the 1900s toys reflected parents' ideas about children and their futures. Erector sets introduced boys to a realm of business and technology, while baby dolls anticipated motherhood and building...
To sort out who's who and what's what in the enchanting, vexing world of Barbies(R) and Ninja Turtles(R), Tinkertoys(R) and teddy bears, is to begi...
Adam Sandler movies, HBO's Entourage, and such magazines as Maxim and FHM all trade in and appeal to one character--the modern boy-man. Addicted to video games, comic books, extreme sports, and dressing down, the boy-man would rather devote an afternoon to Grand Theft Auto than plan his next career move. He would rather prolong the hedonistic pleasures of youth than embrace the self-sacrificing demands of adulthood. When did maturity become the ultimate taboo? Men have gone from idolizing Cary Grant to aping Hugh Grant, shunning marriage and responsibility well into...
Adam Sandler movies, HBO's Entourage, and such magazines as Maxim and FHM all trade in and appeal to one character--the modern bo...
Gary Cross publishes the findings of this largely forgotten study by the Mass-Observers who followed the annual pilgrimage of labourers to Blackpool, hoping to discover what attracted workers to this centre of Victorian culture.
Gary Cross publishes the findings of this largely forgotten study by the Mass-Observers who followed the annual pilgrimage of labourers to Blackpool, ...
Epictetus, a Greek Stoic philosopher who lived 1900 years ago, suggested that we all seek to be calm, free and have our desires met. This book explores Epictetus' way to achieving these - including the problems that Epictetus identifies as the reasons for us not achieving these; the directions that Epictetus offers to help us to achieve these; and finally, the strategies that Epictetus offers to help us to overcome the problems, to successfully follow his directions and ultimately to be calm, free and have our desires satisfied. Quotations are new translations from the Greek texts available...
Epictetus, a Greek Stoic philosopher who lived 1900 years ago, suggested that we all seek to be calm, free and have our desires met. This book explore...
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. For many of us, modern memory is shaped less by a longing for the social customs and practices of the past or for family heirlooms handed down over generations and more by childhood encounters with ephemeral commercial goods and fleeting media moments in our age of fast capitalism. This phenomenon has given rise to communities of nostalgia whose members remain loyal to the toys, television, and music of their youth. They return to the theme parks and pastimes of their upbringing, hoping to reclaim that feeling of childhood wonder or teenage freedom....
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. For many of us, modern memory is shaped less by a longing for the social customs and practices of the past or for ...
