Discussion Questions for Consumer's Republic

1. Lizabeth Cohen uses the terms the purchaser consumer and the purchaser as a citizen throughout the book. Define these terms. Which term did the government stress during the war and the reasons for it? What about after the war? Did these two terms ever intertwine with each other to create a new image of the “good citizen”? If so, when and why?

2. Before the war, how did women use their gender roles as a gateway to influence the government and new policies? What positions were they able to gain when the men went off to war? How did these roles change after the war? Post-war, who was viewed as the “consumer of the family” and who made the decisions?

3. The government has used the media numerous times in American history to spread propaganda. In what ways did the U.S. government use the media to spread new promises and new ideas about the “American life” during and after the war? What roles did Life magazine have advocating these same ideas? How did these ideas help forge the “Consumers’ Republic”?

4. In what ways did consumerism fuel African-Americans to fight for equality? Why were they more determined after the war than before it? How did African-Americans use public accommodations as outlets in demanding equal treatment and equal rights?

5. Which group of people did the G.I. Bill actually help? Why were so many people denied access to the bill’s benefits? How is the G.I. Bill’s discrimination similar to the new taxation laws that were created after the war? How were these same groups treated regarding credit?

6. After the war the Consumer’s Republic created a new representation of what is the cult of domesticity. How did this image change from before? How did the new idea of suburbia generate it? In how many different aspects was the “single-family home” used as a representative figure? Who was not included in this new cult of domesticity umbrella?

7. What is the significance of the “cult of localism”? How did localism and zoning influence educational inequality as well as class and race discrimination? How can we still see the effects of the two in today’s schools and metropolitan areas?