A Consumers' Republic
The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
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Narrated by:
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Karen White
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By:
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Lizabeth Cohen
About this listen
In this signal work of history, Bancroft Prize winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lizabeth Cohen shows how the pursuit of prosperity after World War II fueled our pervasive consumer mentality and transformed American life. Trumpeted as a means to promote the general welfare, mass consumption quickly outgrew its economic objectives and became synonymous with patriotism, social equality, and the American Dream.
Material goods came to embody the promise of America, and the power of consumers to purchase everything from vacuum cleaners to convertibles gave rise to the power of citizens to purchase political influence and effect social change. Yet despite undeniable successes and unprecedented affluence, mass consumption also fostered economic inequality and the fracturing of society along gender, class, and racial lines. In charting the complex legacy of our "Consumers' Republic", Lizabeth Cohen has written a bold, encompassing, and profoundly influential book.
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Franchise
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- By: Marcia Chatelain
- Narrated by: Machelle Williams
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Often blamed for the rising rates of obesity and diabetes among black Americans, fast food restaurants like McDonald's have long symbolized capitalism's villainous effects on our nation's most vulnerable communities. But how did fast food restaurants so thoroughly saturate black neighborhoods in the first place? In Franchise, acclaimed historian Marcia Chatelain uncovers a surprising history of cooperation among fast food companies, black capitalists, and civil rights leaders, who believed they found an economic answer to the problem of racial inequality.
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Window into Black Capitalism
- By Keith on 01-13-20
By: Marcia Chatelain
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American Character
- A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good
- By: Colin Woodard
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The struggle between individualism and the good of the community as a whole has been the basis of every major disagreement in our history, from the debates at the Constitutional Convention and in the run-up to the Civil War to the fights surrounding the agenda of the Progressives, the New Deal, the civil rights movement, and the Tea Party.
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Biased Misrepresentation
- By Jay Ehret on 06-24-16
By: Colin Woodard
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Brazil
- The Troubled Rise of a Global Power
- By: Michael Reid
- Narrated by: Michael Healy
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Experts believe that Brazil, the world's fifth largest country and its seventh largest economy, will be one of the most important global powers by the year 2030. Yet far more attention has been paid to the other rising behemoths: Russia, India, and China. Often ignored and underappreciated, Brazil, according to renowned, award-winning journalist Michael Reid, has finally begun to live up to its potential but faces important challenges before it becomes a nation of substantial global significance.
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Good short history of Brazil, lame pronunciation
- By Bubu Mungani on 07-21-19
By: Michael Reid
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The Conscience of a Liberal
- By: Paul Krugman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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America emerged from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal with strong democratic values and broadly shared prosperity. But for the past 30 years, American politics has been dominated by a conservative movement determined to undermine the New Deal's achievements. Now, the tide may be turning, and in The Conscience of a Liberal Paul Krugman, the world's most widely read economist and one of its most influential political commentators, charts the way to reform.
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Great Book!!!
- By carl801 on 12-04-07
By: Paul Krugman
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When Affirmative Action Was White
- An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America
- By: Ira Katznelson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In this "penetrating new analysis" ( New York Times Book Review), Ira Katznelson fundamentally recasts our understanding of 20th century American history and demonstrates that all the key programs passed during the New Deal and Fair Deal era of the 1930s and 1940s were created in a deeply discriminatory manner. Through mechanisms designed by southern democrats that specifically excluded maids and farm workers, the gap between blacks and whites actually widened despite postwar prosperity.
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Absolute Must Read
- By Andrew on 01-02-18
By: Ira Katznelson
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This Brave New World
- India, China and the United States
- By: Anja Manuel
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the next decade and a half, China and India will become two of the world's indispensable powers - whether they rise peacefully or not. During that time, Asia will surpass the combined strength of North America and Europe in economic might, population size, and military spending. Both India and China will have vetoes over many international decisions, from climate change to global trade, human rights, and business standards.
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Good book, could be better
- By General on 09-23-16
By: Anja Manuel
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Free to Choose
- A Personal Statement
- By: Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, teamed up to write this most convincing and readable guide, which illustrates the crucial link between Adam Smith's capitalism and the free society. They show how freedom has been eroded and prosperity undermined through the rapid growth of governmental agencies, laws, and regulations.
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Fantastic
- By Erik on 01-21-08
By: Milton Friedman, and others
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Golden Gulag
- Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California
- By: Ruth Wilson Gilmore
- Narrated by: Machelle Williams
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Since 1980, the number of people in US prisons has increased more than 450 percent. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called "the biggest prison building project in the history of the world". Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces conjoined to produce the prison boom.
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Started off great but devolved into case study
- By normal person on 10-16-21
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FDR's Folly
- How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
- By: Jim Powell
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.
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Scones for the Tea Party
- By Chiefkent on 06-11-12
By: Jim Powell
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Reason
- Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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From Robert B. Reich, passionate believer in American democracy and public servant, Reason is a guide to confronting and derailing what he sees as the mounting threat to American liberty, prosperity, and security posed by the radical conservatives, Radcons as he calls them.
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Reason
- By Ron Green on 03-13-05
By: Robert B. Reich
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The economy says we must always consume more. The planet says we consume too much. Addressing this paradox head-on, acclaimed journalist J. B. MacKinnon asks, What would really happen if we simply stopped shopping? Is there a way to reduce our consumption to Earth-saving levels without triggering economic collapse? Drawing from experts in fields ranging from climate change to economics, MacKinnon investigates how living with less would change our planet, our society, and ourselves. Along the way, he reveals just how much we stand to gain.
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Thought Provoking
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Hope in the Dark
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Hope indeed!
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Good Story but distracting sound engineering
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Couldn’t get past “rank and file”
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There is so much to think about here.
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Thought Provoking
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Hope in the Dark
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What listeners say about A Consumers' Republic
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- DCS
- 11-14-23
Important
A very good book on history of US consumer behavior. However little discussion on impact on environment.
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- Iread
- 12-01-21
Will put you right to sleep
Holy smokes!?! I was excited to listen, but ended up returning this title. It’s like an exhausting lecture, delivered in the most boring monotone fashion. My mind kept asking a seeing and I couldn’t stay focused at all. The subject matter is of great interest to me, but I feel like this was overly wordy and dove WAY deeper than I cared to go.
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- Susan D
- 04-07-21
Disappointing
Promising topic, but the performance was delivered in a monotone with no inflection at all. I tried twice to listen and finally gave up. Might be better in written form.
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2 people found this helpful