Buying happiness : the emergence of consumer consciousness in English Canada / Bettina Liverant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Liverant, Bettina, 1958- author.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consumers.

History.

Consumption (Economics).

Economic conditions.

Canada--Economic conditions--20th century.

Canada.

Consumption (Economics)--Canada--History--20th century.

Consumers--Canada--History--20th century.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 291 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Vancouver ; Toronto : UBC Press, [2018]

Summary:

"The idea of Canada as a consumer society was largely absent before 1890 but familiar by the mid-1960s. This change required more than rising incomes and greater impulses to buy; it involved the creation of new concepts. Buying Happiness explores the ways that key public thinkers represented, conceptualized, and institutionalized new ideas about consumption. Liverant's fresh approach connects the emergence and diffusion of these ideas with changes in political processes and social policy. As the figure of "the consumer" moved from the margins to the centre of social, cultural, and political analysis, the values and concepts associated with consumerism were woven into the Canadian social imagination."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The meaning is in the spending

The promise of a more abundant life

Culturing Canadian patriotism

Moralizing the economy

Charting the contours of modern society

Regulating the consumer

Buying happiness

Academic encounters.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Other Format:

Liverant, Bettina, 1958-, author. Buying happiness.:

ISBN:

9780774835138

0774835133

OCLC:

1035250096