{"product_id":"9780807876640","title":"Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890-1945","description":"At the turn of the twentieth century, an emerging consumer culture in the United States promoted constant spending to meet material needs and develop social identity and self-cultivation. In \u003ci\u003eSold American\u003c\/i\u003e, Charles F. McGovern examines the key players active in shaping this cultural evolution: advertisers and consumer advocates. McGovern argues that even though these two professional groups invented radically different models for proper spending, both groups propagated mass consumption as a specifically American social practice and an important element of nationality and citizenship.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAdvertisers, McGovern shows, used nationalist ideals, icons, and political language to define consumption as the foundation of the pursuit of happiness. Consumer advocates, on the other hand, viewed the market with a republican-inspired skepticism and fought commercial incursions on consumer independence. The result, says McGovern, was a redefinition of the citizen as consumer. The articulation of an \"American Way of Life\" in the Depression and World War II ratified consumer abundance as the basis of a distinct American culture and history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"The University of North Carolina Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47123786727664,"sku":"9780807876640","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780807876640_p0.jpg?v=1763737647","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780807876640","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}