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

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gordon, Andrew, 1952-

Series:

Asia--local studies/global themes ; 19.

Asia : local studies/global themes ; no. 19

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Singer Sewing Machine Company--History.

Singer Sewing Machine Company.

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

Sewing-machine industry.

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

Clothing trade.

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

Consumers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (303 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Since its early days of mass production in the 1850's, 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

pt. 2. Sewing modernity in war and peace.

Notes:

"A Philip E. Lilienthal book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613520586

9781280103872

1280103876

9780520950313

0520950313

OCLC:

763156525