Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture

Author:   Sharon Zukin
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Edition:   New edition
ISBN:  

9780415950435


Pages:   336
Publication Date:   01 March 2005
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Point of Purchase: How Shopping Changed American Culture


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Full Product Details

Author:   Sharon Zukin
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   1.050kg
ISBN:  

9780415950435


ISBN 10:   0415950430
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   01 March 2005
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

"Prologue: What Shopping Is 1. A Brief History of Shopping 2. Julia Learns to Shop 3. From Woolworth's to Wal-Mart 4. ""The Perfect Pair of Leather Pants"" 5. B. Altman, Ralph Lauren, and the Death of the Leisure Class 6. Artemio Goes to Tiffany's 7. Consumer Guides and the Invention of Lifestyle 8. How Brooks Brothers Came to Look Like Banana Republic 9. The Zen of Internet Shopping 10. Zagats' 'R' Us Epilogue: What Shopping Should Be Acknowledgments Notes"

Reviews

'People on the Upper West Side yearn for stores to be social institutions, ' said Sharon Zukin, a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and the author of Point of Purchase. And food is the primal consumer good, so people do become attached. <br>-Steven Kurutz, The New York Times, May 2004 <br> Over the last two decades, Sharon Zukin has expertly guided us through urban spaces and what she inventively called 'landscapes of power.' Now, in Point of Purchase, she steers us through today's 'landscapes of consumption'--the department stores, discount chains, consumer guides, and internet websites where Americans are daily redefining themselves. With Zukin as our intrepid navigator, the familiar waters of commerce suddenly become the cutting edge of contemporary American culture. <br>-Lizabeth Cohen, author of A Consumers' Republic <br> It's easy to condemn shopping, but it's more difficult--and more important--to understand it. If you've noticed that shopping is becoming ever more inescapable and ever less satisfying, Sharon Zukin's intimate yet authoritative exploration of the retail experience will tell you why. <br>-Thomas Hine, author of I Want That! How We All Became Shoppers <br> Sharon Zukin avoids cliches, never ducks an argument, and digs out unfamiliar facts. The result is a brilliant and unsettling essay<br>. <br>-Richard Sennett, London School of Economics <br> Zukin provides a historical and analytical context to help readers understand how shopping has affected public and private life from the mid-19th century to today. Well researched and thorough, the book unearths how and where we shop and, more importantly, why consumer culture has so much power over us. .Zukin's lively prose and vivid anecdotes may win her a larger audience. <br>- Publishers Weekly <br>


Over the last two decades, Sharon Zukin has expertly guided us through urban spaces and what she inventively called 'landscapes of power.' Now, in Point of Purchase, she steers us through today's 'landscapes of consumption'--the department stores, discount chains, consumer guides, and internet websites where Americans are daily redefining themselves. With Zukin as our intrepid navigator, the familiar waters of commerce suddenly become the cutting edge of contemporary American culture. -- Lizabeth Cohen, author of A Consumers'Republic It's easy to condemn shopping, but it's more difficult--and more important--to understand it. If you've noticed that shopping is becoming ever more inescapable and ever less satisfying, Sharon Zukin's intimate yet authoritative exploration of the retail experience will tell you why. -- Thomas Hine, author of I Want That! How We All Became Shoppers Sharon Zukin avoids cliches, never ducks an argument, and digs out unfamiliar facts. The result is a brilliant and unsettling essay. -- Richard Sennett, London School of Economics Zukin provides a historical and analytical context to help readers understand how shopping has affected public and private life from the mid-19th century to today. Well researched and thorough, the book unearths how and where we shop and, more importantly, why consumer culture has so much power over us. . Zukin's lively prose and vivid anecdotes may win her a larger audience. -- PublishersWeekly Using her own keen shopper's eyes to comb through a variety of sources, Zukin assembles a compelling study of a national passion. This book is not meant to explore the entire history of shopping but to examine how shopping has become a focus of American culture. The adroit juxtaposition of source types lends Zukin's arguments credence. Zukin is careful to explain that she is not seeking to chastise Americans for being greedy shopaholics. Instead, she wants to understand what she considers one of the main ways in which people create value in their lives and express themselves. -- LibraryJournal Point of Purchase...is nevertheless a wonderfully provovative starting point for a conversation on the politics of shopping. -- Kathleen G. Donohue, The Journal of American History Sharon Zukin avoids cliches, never ducks an argument, and digs out unfamiliar facts. The result is a brilliant and unsettling essay. - Richard Sennett, London School of Economics


"""Over the last two decades, Sharon Zukin has expertly guided us through urban spaces and what she inventively called 'landscapes of power.' Now, in Point of Purchase, she steers us through today's 'landscapes of consumption'--the department stores, discount chains, consumer guides, and internet websites where Americans are daily redefining themselves. With Zukin as our intrepid navigator, the familiar waters of commerce suddenly become the cutting edge of contemporary American culture."" -- Lizabeth Cohen, author of A Consumers'Republic ""It's easy to condemn shopping, but it's more difficult--and more important--to understand it. If you've noticed that shopping is becoming ever more inescapable and ever less satisfying, Sharon Zukin's intimate yet authoritative exploration of the retail experience will tell you why."" -- Thomas Hine, author of I Want That! How We All Became Shoppers ""Sharon Zukin avoids clichés, never ducks an argument, and digs out unfamiliar facts. The result is a brilliant and unsettling essay."" -- Richard Sennett, London School of Economics ""Zukin provides a historical and analytical context to help readers understand how shopping has affected public and private life from the mid-19th century to today. Well researched and thorough, the book unearths how and where we shop and, more importantly, why consumer culture has so much power over us. . Zukin's lively prose and vivid anecdotes may win her a larger audience."" -- PublishersWeekly ""Using her own keen shopper's eyes to comb through a variety of sources, Zukin assembles a compelling study of a national passion. This book is not meant to explore the entire history of shopping but to examine how shopping has become a focus of American culture. The adroit juxtaposition of source types lends Zukin's arguments credence. Zukin is careful to explain that she is not seeking to chastise Americans for being greedy shopaholics. Instead, she wants to understand what she considers one of the main ways in which people create value in their lives and express themselves."" -- LibraryJournal ""Point of Purchase...is nevertheless a wonderfully provovative starting point for a conversation on the politics of shopping."" -- Kathleen G. Donohue, The Journal of American History ""Sharon Zukin avoids clichés, never ducks an argument, and digs out unfamiliar facts. The result is a brilliant and unsettling essay."" - Richard Sennett, London School of Economics"


Sharon Zukin avoids cliches, never ducks an argument, and digs out unfamiliar facts. The result is a brilliant and unsettling essay. - Richard Sennett, London School of Economics


Author Information

Sharon Zukin teaches sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and at Brooklyn College, where she holds an endowed chair. She is the author of numerous books and articles, and is a major figure in both urban studies and cultural sociology. She lives in New York City.

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