Fabricating consumers : the sewing machine in modern Japan / Andrew Gordon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gordon, Andrew, 1952-

Contributor:

ebrary, Inc.

Christine Hikawa Fund.

Series:

Asia--local studies/global themes ; 19.

Asia: local studies/global themes ; no. 19

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Singer Sewing Machine Company.

Sewing-machine industry--Japan--History--20th century.

Sewing-machine industry.

Singer Sewing Machine Company--History.

Sewing machines--Japan--History--20th century.

Sewing machines.

Sewing-machine industry--United States--History--20th century.

Clothing trade--Japan--History--20th century.

Clothing trade.

Consumers--Japan--History--20th century.

Consumers.

History.

Japan.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 285 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, Cailf. : University of California Press, [2012]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Since its early days of mass production in the 1850s, the sewing machine has been intricately connected with the global development of capitalism. Andrew Gordon traces the machine's remarkable journey into and throughout Japan, where it not only transformed manners of dress, but also helped change patterns of daily life, class structure, and the role of women. As he explores the selling, buying, and use of the sewing machine in the early to mid-twentieth century, Gordon finds that its history is a lens through which we can examine the modern transformation of daily life in Japan. Both as a tool of production and as an object of consumer desire, the sewing machine is entwined with the emergence and ascendance of the middle class, of the female consumer, and of the professional home manager as defining elements of Japanese modernity.

Contents:

Pt. 1. Singer in Japan. Meiji machines

The American way of selling

Selling and consuming modern life

Resisting Yankee capitalism

pt. 2. Sewing modernity in war and peace. War machines at home

Mechanical phoenix

A nation of dressmakers.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. Available via World Wide Web.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Christine Hikawa Fund.

ISBN:

0520950313

9780520950313

Publisher Number:

99951902421

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.