Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture

(A response) My gut feeling based on my own experience and readings is that industrialization opened the space for a mass healing (albeit often a counterproductive attempt via consumerism!) of what I playfully call “post feudalism traumatic stress disorder “ One big example is a call for the end of child labor —prevalent in feudalism and early industrialism . So on the one hand , we have a good intention and on the other a mismanagement of that good intention. All true healers understand this: when healing , the toxins temporarily worsen the condition of the patient as they expel. Today, the toxins are still spewing. Dr. Leach contributes a wealth of evidence to this thesis with precision, grace, wisdom, and compassion.

Fabulous sociology and history of department stores and the birth of American consumer culture

I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I got bored. It's a detailed account of the rise of consumerism in the context of early department stores. Very well researched and detailed. I read about 20% of the book and now I'm giving it to the thrift store.

Probably one of the most thorough and comprehensive books ever written on the roots of American commercial manipulation during these formative years.

Bore.

On time, as described.

Very well done. Informative, engaging, a pleasure to read; and all too relevant to our own times. This is a very satisfying, as well as thought-provoking read.

For anyone who wants to know where and how consumer America got its start, this is the book.

Thought-proving read that gives us all insight into 'how things got to be this way' in terms of our vast consumer culture. This is a cultural history that helps us question some of our base assumptions about shopping, buying, credit cards, debt, working wages, chain stores, investment banking, advertising...and so many other things we take for granted as 'just the way things are'.