A Consumer’s Republic – Lizabeth Cohen

Though I found this reading to be particularly long, I felt as though the information given was in an incredibly logical and organized fashion.  Cohen takes us through the development of America as a nation of citizen consumers and purchaser consumers after World War Two, as part of the recovery of the nation and return to normalcy.

 

Cohen points to the role of women and the role of African-Americans as key to making challenges and shaping the politics of mass consumption as part of their own individual movements for equality.  While I thought that this was interesting, and it was from these marginalized groups that consumers gained their most strength and organization, mass consumption seemed to win out with the creation of suburbs, strip malls, and the hollowing out of cities.

 

I particularly thought that the reading connected well in the later chapters about suburbia to the lecture that we had about blockbusting and redlining in predominantly poor, African-American communities.  These effects are still very much with us today, as part of the greater institution of racism, and I think it will be difficult and interesting to see how these legacies are dealt with in the future, as our country faces issues not only of poverty and race relations, but also energy crises and human rights at home and around the globe.