Pocketbook politics : economic citizenship in twentieth-century America / Meg Jacobs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jacobs, Meg, 1969-

Series:

Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America

Politics and society in twentieth-century America

Politics and Society in Modern America ; 46

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Income distribution--United States--History--20th century.

Income distribution.

Purchasing power--United States--History--20th century.

Purchasing power.

Consumption (Economics)--United States--History--20th century.

Consumption (Economics).

United States--Politics and government--20th century.

United States.

United States--Economic conditions--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (367 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"How much does it cost?" We think of this question as one that preoccupies the nation's shoppers, not its statesmen. But, as Pocketbook Politics dramatically shows, the twentieth-century American polity in fact developed in response to that very consumer concern. In this groundbreaking study, Meg Jacobs demonstrates how pocketbook politics provided the engine for American political conflict throughout the twentieth century. From Woodrow Wilson to Franklin Roosevelt to Richard Nixon, national politics turned on public anger over the high cost of living. Beginning with the explosion of prices at the turn of the century, every strike, demonstration, and boycott was, in effect, a protest against rising prices and inadequate income. On one side, a reform coalition of ordinary Americans, mass retailers, and national politicians fought for laws and policies that promoted militant unionism, government price controls, and a Keynesian program of full employment. On the other, small businessmen fiercely resisted this low-price, high-wage agenda that threatened to bankrupt them. This book recaptures this dramatic struggle, beginning with the immigrant Jewish, Irish, and Italian women who flocked to Edward Filene's famous Boston bargain basement that opened in 1909 and ending with the Great Inflation of the 1970's. Pocketbook Politics offers a new interpretation of state power by integrating popular politics and elite policymaking. Unlike most social historians who focus exclusively on consumers at the grass-roots, Jacobs breaks new methodological ground by insisting on the centrality of national politics and the state in the nearly century-long fight to fulfill the American Dream of abundance.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Economic Citizenship in the Twentieth Century

PART I. THE HIGH COST OF LIVING AND THE RISE OF POCKETBOOK POLITICS, 1900-1930

Chapter One. From the Bargain Basement to the Bargaining Table, 1900-1917

Chapter Two Business without a Buyer, 1917-1930

PART II. PURCHASING POWER TO THE PEOPLE, 1930-1940

Chapter Three. The New Deal and the Problem of Prices, 1930-1935

Chapter Four. The New Deal and the Problem of Wages, 1935-1940

PART III. THE EVILS OF INFLATION IN WAR AND PEACE, 1940-1960

Chapter Five. The Consumer Goes to War, 1940-1946

Chapter Six. Pocketbook Politics in an Age of Inflation, 1946-1960

Epilogue. Back to Bargain Hunting

Notes

Index

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691086644

0691086648

9781400843787

1400843782

OCLC:

860712049