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Title: Lead Us Into Temptation by James B. Twitchell ISBN: 0-231-11519-9 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 November, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.17 (6 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Just Dreadful
Comment: As an academic who loves to shop, I was hoping this would provide a more balanced account of the rise and impact of mass consumerism. He is certainly right that academics and other relatively privileged strata have something of a knee-jerk animus to mass pleasure. But the book is a complete failure. It amounts to little more than a defense brief for mass consumerism--and like a good defense lawyer, he ignores evidence that doesn't fit his case, distorts the arguments of his foes, and offers a rosy, unreal view of his client. ... Skip.
Rating: 4
Summary: Pragmatic view point on consumerism and advertising
Comment: An interesting read about the invasive consumerism of the 20th century. His basic take is we buy what we want, it isn't foisted on us by advertsing. All that you see on TV is an ad, including the "news", the sitcom set, ie house, clothes, pots, pans, lamps and has been since the beginning of TV. And that "Democracy" is the freedom to buy what you want when you want it.
He makes a good case that this has been what people "really" want since time imortal. And that no amount of whining about how it isn't good for you can compete with the almighty dollar. Simply put, if you really didn't want it, you wouldn't buy it.
I do agree that he can get long winded in his arguments.
Anyone looking to start up another .com company would do well to read this first.
Rating: 2
Summary: Pretentious twaddle disguised as scholarship
Comment: First, it was quite obvious that the author has some sort of animus against non-materialism, since he seems to glory in taking gratuitous chops at environmentalists, the voluntary simplicity movement, and pretty much anyone who doesn't agree with him. I was thoroughly sick of it by the end of the first chapter.
Second, he does not back up many of his assertions, despite a plethora of footnotes. For instance, he asserts that kitchens have gotten smaller in the last few decades (seemingly as a way of proving that we eat more take out and less home cooked food), without stating whether he means suburban or urban kitchens, new construction or remodelling, apartment, condo or detached kitchens...you get the picture. There are similarly unsupported assertions about trash disposal, landfills, and teenage buying patterns.
Finally, it was *dull*. The only parts that were even vaguely entertaining were the last few chapters, when the polemics were replaced by personal reporting of his trip to a mall. I learned very little about American materialism, and far more than I wished about the author's political biases.
A huge disappointment.
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Title: Marketing Madness: A Survival Guide for a Consumer Society by Michael F. Jacobson, Laurie Ann Mazur ISBN: 0813319811 Publisher: Westview Press Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: Adcult USA by James B. Twitchell ISBN: 0231103255 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Twenty Ads That Shook the World : The Century's Most Groundbreaking Advertising and How It Changed Us All by James Twitchell ISBN: 0609807234 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 26 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need by Juliet B. Schor ISBN: 0060977582 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Trading Up: The New American Luxury by Michael Silverstein, Neil Fiske ISBN: 1591840139 Publisher: Portfolio Pub. Date: 09 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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