Book Description
In 2006, world oil consumption will exceed one thousand barrels per second. The news marks an important change that will have a far-reaching impact on world economies, investments, and business profitability.
In A Thousand Barrels a Second, Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Peter Tertzakian examines the future of oil and offers insights into what it will take to rebalance our energy needs and seize new opportunities. He answers the top questions asked by business leaders, policy makers, investors, and concerned citizens as we approach the coming break point:
- Are today's high oil and gas prices part of a routine business cycle, or are there more profound forces at play?
- Are hybrid vehicles our only solution against high gasoline prices?
- Is China's growing thirst for energy sustainable?
- Which government policies work and which do not?
- Will nuclear power and coal save the day-again?
Tertzakian also offers a realistic, informed look into the future of our energy supply chains and how our consumption patterns may evolve, revealing how governments, businesses, and even individuals can meet the coming challenges with better solutions and innovations.
Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2007-09-06
I read this book hoping to gain additional knowledge on the commodity called oil and to understand for myself what the supply & demand issues for oil really are.
I got this and a lot more in reading this excellent book. The author really breaks down the topic into easy to understand terms and starts at the beginning with the historic value of oil and works through to current times and the future.
Highlights of this book for me were, the explanation of the history of oil starting back in the 1800's with whale oil and progressing through to kerosene and coal. The parts about Winston Churchill were really fascinating. Also, the examination and discussion of how innovation was key in the transition from the different types of energy - from whale oil, to kerosene, to uranium, to oil and beyond; each times science innovation was key.
I found the charts used very easy to understand and they added a lot to the discussion in the book.
Overall, this is an outstanding book. Very well researched and a great oil and history education.
Energy Masterpiece.......2007-08-04
Peter Tertzakian provides a wake up call to America and the world on the challenges we face with our dependency on energy. While not being an alarmist, he lays out a sobering message that we need to start doing things NOW to prepare for and delay the inevitible "break point" where our supply lines of oil will be severly challenged. He points out that America is in a lot of ways disadvantaged (compared to other nations) by our internal political and societal way we live. The book is wonderfully written, extremely well researched and full of interesting historical facts and figures. I am looking forward to his next book on
very good history, interesting current analysis.......2007-05-20
"A Thousand Barrels a Second," by Peter Tertzakian, starts with a fascinating historical discussion of the rise and fall of whale oil as a fuel for lighting. At first you might wonder about the relevance of whale oil in an analysis of modern energy use, but as you read along, you understand the parallels between the finite resource of whale blubber and the finite resource of "light sweet crude" upon which we depend so much today.
Tertzakian goes on the review the principle of growth, pressure buildup, and then a "break point" as an energy source becomes disadvantaged.
I especially appreciated the concept of the "oil dependency factor" of a given economy. The "oil dependency factor" can be considered as the measure of how much new oil is required to fuel economic growth. Countries like Japan, Britain, and France have taken very conscious efforts to mitigate their oil dependency, and thus have very low oil dependency factors. Countries in the early stages of industrialization, like China and India, exhibit high "oil dependency factors." This concept becomes very useful as you consider diversifying the energy mix in an economy while still allowing economic growth.
Tertzakian continues to make very interesting points as he goes on to discuss the very low probability of our being saved from our horrific energy policy by waiting for a technological "magic bullet."
The author does give some very practical advice for postponing the collapse. He mentions three actions we can do right now do decrease our use of fossil fuels. These require no new technology and could made a big difference in giving society some "breathing room" while we ponder the next steps. These very practical suggestions are:
- lower national speed limits
- raising fuel taxes
- progressive tax of vehicles based on fuel inefficiency
Tertzakian starts to ramble and dream a bit at the end, but on the whole, I found this to be a very readable and informative book with a novel view of the our current energy quagmire.
Energy History.......2007-04-29
Mr. Tertzakian ended up doing a great book. I was afraid that been a investment analist the book could be fullfilled with "do it yourself" advices on transforming the energy-to-be-crisis into profit. Far away. The book is a very interesting analisis of the energy paterns during the last centuries and the probable outcomes in the near future. The first chapters with the evolution of the need for fuels (whale-coal-kerosene-coal gas-oil-??) are strong and very well writen. I guess it is a book that must be read.
Good at the start, esp for newbies, but too sanguine about the future at the end.......2007-03-18
Now, I'm not James Kunstler, predicting we will all be living in caves in 50 years. But, after disavowing magic bullets throughout much of the book, Tertzakian seems more than realistically hopeful, in my opinion, in the last chapter. Read Klare or somebody else for a more sober, and sobering account.
That said, this is a good introductory book to Peak Oil and related issues, especially if you're new to all of this. But, especially if you AREN'T new to the subject, you can do better.
Book Description
"I like the fact that the book is relatively even-handed - appreciating spectacle even while forcing students to question critically the effects of consumption in their lives and those of their fellow citizens."
-Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University
"
Enchanting a Disenchanted World is a tour de force. Drawing upon a rich array of examples, George Ritzer provides an original and insightful analysis of the new means of consumption and how they are transforming our lives. . . . Analytically crisp, jargon free, and packed with fresh illustrations,
Enchanting a Disenchanted World is equally effective as an engaging read for specialists and a lucid text for classroom use. Highly recommended to scholars and students."
-Kevin Fox Gotham, Tulane University
"I think this is a great book! I have enjoyed working with it, and so have my students. . . . I especially like the chapters that deal with social theory. These chapters are very effective in presenting social theory to students, as they contain very clear and straightforward explanations of the ideas of otherwise very complex and difficult social theorists."
-Ann Branaman, Florida Atlantic University
Megamalls. Restaurant chains. Elaborate casinos. Deluxe cruise ships. Enormous theme parks. Everywhere we turn, there is a new place being constructed in which to spend money. The
Second Edition of
Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption examines the development of these settings, and many others like them, in the last half century.
Author George Ritzer takes a look at how a revolutionary change has occurred in the places in which we consume goods and services, and how it has a profound effect not only on the nature of consumption but also on social life. In the process of taking capitalism to a new level, we have created new "cathedrals of consumption"-locales to which we make pilgrimages in order to practice our consumer religion. The book offers rich detail on consuming in places such as Las Vegas, Disney World, cruise ships, Wal-Mart, and McDonald’s-all competing to outdo one another to see which one can put on the greatest show and lure the most consumers.
Enchanting a Disenchanted World is a unique analysis of the world of consumption, examining how we are different consumers now than we were in the past, both in the U.S. and around the world. In the process of understanding this social development, a wide range of theoretical perspectives including Marxian, Weberian, critical theory, and postmodern theory are applied. The book also looks at concepts such as hyperconsumption, implosion, time and space, and simulation.
New to the
Second Edition:
- A new Chapter 7 has been added discussing "landscapes of consumption," or locales that encompass two or more cathedrals of consumption, giving a broader geographic context to examine the changes in consumption settings, their impact on the lure of consumption, and the pressure to consume.
- A new section has been added to Chapter 3, devoted to the historical importance of the early Parisian arcades and to the thinking of the important social theorist, Walter Benjamin, on these sites.
- The book has been thoroughly revised and updated and discusses the new big players among the cathedrals of consumption, including Disney’s upcoming theme park in Hong Kong, the new Queen Mary II, the soon-to-be completed casino resort Wynn Las Vegas, and many more.
Enchanting a Disenchanted World connects the everyday world in a sociological and theoretical way, making it an ideal text for a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses including introductory sociology, sociology of consumption , social change, popular culture, sociology of leisure, social theory, and economic sociology. The book will also be of value to anyone interested in exploring a sociological analysis of the world’s changing and expanding patterns and places of consumption.
Customer Reviews:
Plays like a broken record.............2005-08-12
It's interesting for five minutes...and that's when you are flipping through the pages.
He is always coming back to the same points.
This should have been a summarized and compressed phamplet.
Thoughtful and perceptive.......2003-09-05
This book changed the way I view my own habits of consumption. I found his analysis of contemporary trends in consumption interesting and provocative. Also interesting was his conclusion that as people grow accustomed to the new means of consumption that they have to be continually impressed by something new. I thought his remarks on the architecture of the "cathedrals of consumption" were also very important. The most unsettling aspect of the book was Ritzer's comparison of modern styles of consumption with religious institutions, and even the conformity of religious institutions to this new means of consumption (i.e., the mega-churches of today). It was a good read, too, not too dense or pretentious. Very engaging.
please do not buy this book.......2001-11-08
this has to be the most superficial and simplistic account on the new means of consumption; i.e., malls, theme parks, casinos, etc. it is hardly believable that ritzer takes in a seriuos manner his naive arguments, that in several occasions turn into pure idle talk, or worst pure stupidity. just to give one example, when he mentions that malls have their roots in the ancient greek and roman markets. although he states that his work is heavely influenced by the writtings of baudrillard he never explains in his matter why we consume in the first place. even worse, he never gives a concrete argumentation of why this world is disenchanted in the first place and why it has to be enchanted. so please do not make the same mistake that i did and do not buy this book. it is the first time that i have read something by this author but i think i had enough of him for the rest of my life. i might be a joy-killer to use the term of ritzer to describe an anthropologist but i least i am not as simplistic and stupid as he is.
Interesting, yet hypocritial.......1999-10-18
Well, he even talks Amazon.com as a cathedral of consumption, and brings up such facts as doing what I am doing, reviewing books on amazon.com. I found it to be hypocritical for him to badmouth consumption so much, yet he profits from the things he badmouths, such as my purchase of his book at amazon.com He claims most are subject to consumption. Well, unless you go around naked, live in a cafe and eat sticks, everyone is. This book serves as a valuable tool to look into the methods of consumption that rule our daily lives, but don't get too caught up it how bad it is, consumption feeds the author and his family also.
Prepare to feel exploited.......1999-10-05
Ritzer does a good job of awakening the average consumer to the explotation they are undergoing daily.
Book Description
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.
Customer Reviews:
Mediocre, repetitive, irrelevamt.......2005-09-01
"A Consumers' Republic" is one of those kinds of books that exists on the premise that it illuminates some previously unknown phenomenon. The book purports to be a "bold, encompassing, and profoundly influential book." I humbly propose that this book is none of the above. "A Consumers' Republic" is certainly not a "bold" book. Quite tepidly, actually, the author makes a weak case that is essentially a rehashing (and a mediocre one at that) of mainstream academic criticisms of popular market culture. Certianly nothing new, the ideas lamely presented by this author were actually prefigured by a factor of centuries by actual scholars such as Smith, Marx, and de Toqueville. Not bold for sure, but also lacking nuance; "A Consumers' Republic" condescends to its readers and its subjects alike. And is this book "profoundly influential," as the jacket pompously asserts? I hope not.
Fascinating history, though stodgy at times.......2005-03-21
I defer to the thorough review titled "Consumption and Greed" below for a synopsis of this book.
The subject matter of "A Consumers' Republic" is engrossing and the book reveals many truths that are now forgotten and swept under the rug. Cohen uses an impressive plethora of examples to demonstrate her points, and in the end I know much more about the United States' economic and social history from the 30's to the present.
Unfortuntately, Cohen's writing often becomes convoluted and difficult to read due to frequent lengthy and difficult to follow sentences. While reading, many times I had to re-read a sentence or paragraph in order to grasp the author's intent. A few times I even wanted to put the book down and pick up a less academic book - perhaps some fiction - to give my eyes and brain a break. Much of the book is well written and flows well, but these occasional roadblocks require determination to get through and prove frustrating. However, having finished this yesterday, I'm happy I persevered. The incredible amount of research and well thought out and supported thesis' are worth five stars, but the writing brings it down to four stars.
"consumer's ranks could include both everyone and no one".......2005-02-10
The above quote from the book reveals its fundamental problem. Consumerism is stretched to include (for example) racial equality, housing policy, and politics: this dulls any edge the concept might have as an analytic tool. What is a consumer? We're told "the word's original meaning" - - "to devour, waste and spend" - - but not its current one. The author tries to distinguish between the "citizen consumer" and "purchaser consumer". The supposed dichotomy between these roles was no more obvious to me than to those consumer advocates who - - to the author's apparent surprise - - "found it possible to endorse both simultaneously".
So the book is a kind of grab bag of the USA's post-war social problems, often using the author's home state as an example. At times, she seems on the verge of dissecting New Jersey as Mike Davis does Los Angeles (high praise from me), but never quite sustains such a level. For example, there's a fascinating account of how policies of "upzoning" were used to create homogeneous suburbs of large, expensive, detached houses. But when explaining how this led to racial polarization - - in an era of supposed desegregration - - she can only show us the 'after' map, not the 'before'. However, the use of photos, advertisements, and newspaper cartoons is exemplary: often amusing, sometimes shocking.
Towards the end of the book, the author finds it necessary to expand the concept of "consumer" to "consumer/citizen", and finally to "consumer/citizen/taxpayer/voter": a clear sign of a dead end. On the final page, her vision is vague and feeble: we "could reinvigorate the liberating aspects of the purchaser" and "could seek to reverse the trend toward the Consumerization of the Republic by not shrinking from articulating the important things that only government can do". Hardly a programme of action. But maybe that's too much to expect.
A remarkable piece of research.......2004-02-02
Lizabeth Cohen's "A Consumers' Republic" does much to explain how citizenship has been significantly redefined by consumerism in postwar America. The thoroughly readable book is full of insights and should interest all readers of 20th century American history. It will also prompt many to ponder how America might try to heal its frayed society while there is time available to do so.
In the Acknowledgements, Ms. Cohen explains that this impressive book was written over the course of ten years. Her thesis profited from audience feedback at numerous college lectures and presentations she made during this time and with able assistance from a number of talented student researchers. With over 400 pages of text and 100 pages of notes, the book represents a remarkable achievement and is a testament to Ms. Cohen's intelligent use of the academic research process.
Ms. Cohen is in top form when she chronicles the struggles of women and African-Americans to assert their rights in what she calls the "Consumers' Republic" of 1945 to 1975. The author provides background material by documenting how a variety of bread-and-butter consumer issues mobilized millions into action from the Depression through WWII. Ms. Cohen then shows how power gained by women and minorities through their contributions to the war effort later found expression in the Civil Rights, women's liberation and other movements of the 1950s and 1960s.
However, Ms. Cohen explains that policy makers in the aftermath of WWII were influenced and corrupted by, among other things, unparalleled levels of corporate power and ideological rivalry with the Soviet Union. Mass consumption was seen as a solution to help keep manufacturing profits high and was propagandized in order prove to the world that the U.S. was practically a classless society. The reality was different, of course. The author discusses how racial, gender and class biases were reaffirmed and institutionalized by the GI Bill and other legislative acts. As a result of Ms. Cohen's extraordinary research, the reader comes to understand that the increasingly stratified post-WWII American society that resulted was not inevitable but was shaped by powerful interests who privileged private sector solutions at the expense of the public.
In my view, the only shortcomings in this ambitious book are Ms. Cohen's failure to discuss the environmental consequences of consumerism and her omission of the student revolt against the military/industrial complex in the 1960s. But overall, these are minor quibbles. "A Consumers' Republic" delivers plenty of thought-provoking material and is a pleasure to read. The book is highly recommended to everyone who might want to gain perspective on contemporary American society and further consider where it might be headed.
A must read for students of American history & marketing........2003-08-08
To say you are an America is to say that you are, de facto, a consumer.
This word is a defining aspect of our American world... Consumerism covers daily life, whether it be drug discounts, tourism, marketers, insurance, cars, homes, technology or just plain old product reviews. We Americans are defined by our consumption.
Lizabeth Cohen has given us a thoroughly researched, readable history on consumerism, and how it came to be such a force and part of our lives in America. She argues that after WWII the "Consumer Republic" was launched, full force, affecting life styles, government and even belief systems. Though the beginning of a consumers movement had occurred before 1940, the "Consumer Republic" took form and force after the second world war.
Cohen's writing style is informative, to the point of being academic. "A Consumers' Republic" is a history book. Thus, it may be a bit more pedantic than most general readers would like.
I found a few omissions that distracted from the overall excellence of the book. One being that Cohen does not investigate how consumerism has been incorporated into, and seriously affected, American Christianity. She does not address how Christianity, especially considering the `Protestant work ethic', helped to shaped and drive consumerism into being. She does not explore `why' Americans live to consume, "shop til they drop." Neither does she reflect on the effects that unbridled consumption have on both the social fabric of our nation or the ecological impact on our land.
That said, this book is a "need to read" for students of American history, marketing, those involved as consumer activists, and business. Recommended. 3.5 stars
Average customer rating:
|
Crime, Gender And Consumer Culture In Nineteenth-Century England (The History of Retailing and Consumption)
Tammy C. Whitlock
Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| England
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Social History
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Criminology
| Crime & Criminals
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Cultural
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside History Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Nonfiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0754652076 |
Book Description
Now available in a paperback edition, b /b b i Consumption and the World of Goods /i /b offers a new interpretation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one that shapes a new historical landscape based on the consumption of goods and services. Leading specialists from the United States and Europe focus on problems of methodology and historiography, goods and consumption, production and the meaning of possessions, literacy and numeracy, books, newspapers, objects and images. The result is a rich new direction in early modern cultural and social history. br br b Contributors: /b Jean-Christophe Agnew, Joyce Appleby, T.H. Breen, John Brewer, Peter Burke, Colin Campbell, Patricia Cline Cohen, David Cressy, Jan de Vries, Cissie Fairchilds, C.Y. Ferdinand, Iaroslav Isaievych, Sidney Mintz, John Money, Chandra Mukerji, Jeremy D. Popkin, Roy Porter, Simon Schaffer
Book Description
First published in 1979,
The World of Goods rapidly established itself as a classic. In this pioneering work, a leading anthropologist and an economist join forces to suggest what market researchers have long suspected and anthropologists have observed firsthand in other cultures--that people use goods as a means of communicating with each other.
It is the unique contribution of this fascinating book that it shows us precisely how the insights of anthropology can help us better understand the varied ways in which we use the "world of goods" to communicate.
Customer Reviews:
A Classic.......2002-06-19
This is one of the early anthropological critiques of neo-classical economics. Many of the ideas expounded here are now being seriously pondered by economists who are attempting to find ways around them. Douglas,who is arguably the best known British anthropologist of her generation, has a particular insight into the way economist think - possibly because her husband is an economist. This makes her uniquely qualifed to provide us with an anthropology of consumption, that does not dismiss economists, as much as show how much they miss by not understanding the cultural dimensions of consumption.
An excellent discussion of consumption and culture........2001-01-06
Written in 1979 and revised recently in 1996, Douglas and Isherwood's classic breaks through our own love/hate relationship with consumption and the biased interpretations of history and the present to look in a reasoned fashion at the patterns with which all people choose to buy things and the affiliations we create using these things. Lamenting the fact that economics has restricted itself by limiting human tastes to a black-box phenomenon, Douglas (a renowned, now retired, anthropologist) rips open the box and finds many convincing arguments for the uses of goods as a means of communication in all societies.
Additionally, they discuss previous and current ideas about why people save, or don't consume, and provide excellent comparative analyses between societies in Great Britain, blacks and whites in the US, the Nuer of the Sudan, and Zimbabwe's Lele people. What the reader comes away with is a deeper understanding of how people use consumption, both consciously and unconsciously, to provide information about themselves, send messages to others, and try to control the flow of culture and information to best benefit themselves and their interests.
The writing, which I have the impression was mostly written by Douglas since I'm familiar with her style from other books, feels a bit cerebral but is extremely lucid and will keep you on your toes with novel interpretations of familiar cultural phenomena.
Accounting for tastes.......2000-04-08
In this book, a renowned structural anthropologist collaborates with an economist to propose an explanation for one of the great mysteries of economics: where do "preferences" come from? Much of neoclassical economics rests on the assumption that, once we know the basic desires and tastes for a given population, we can then understand how people make rational decisions about how to acquire them and how to allocate their resources. The actual preferences themselves, however, are a black box. Douglas & Isherwood tackle this problem, evaluating several theories of "rational" economic actors from cross-cultural and systems theoretical perspectives. Their answer is that many of these mysteries are not so mysterious after all: we have good reasons for valuing the things we value, and many of the apparently frivolous fads and fashions are in fact life-and-death matters. "Good taste" is an index of social connections, of reproductive fitness, of one's ability to mobilize resources -- and in a society increasingly dependent on information and services rather than physical products, the race to remain on the cutting edge becomes like traveling with the Red Queen, faster and faster just to stay in place. Along the way, Douglas throws out a number of gems which are incidental to her argument, including a proposal for why women's work is always and everywhere valued less than men's. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in what anthropologists can tell us about the deep logics of behavior in the consumer society.
Book Description
Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-Century Britain explores the invention, making, and buying of new, semi-luxury, and fashionable consumer goods during the eighteenth century. It follows these goods, from china tea ware to all sorts of metal ornaments such as candlesticks, cutlery, buckles, and buttons, as they were made and shopped for, then displayed in the private domestic settings of Britain's urban middling classes. It tells the stories and analyses the developments that led from a global trade in Eastern luxuries beginning in the sixteenth century to the new global trade in British-made consumer goods by the end of the eighteenth century. These new products, regarded as luxuries by the rapidly growing urban and middling-class people of the eighteenth century, played an important part in helping to proclaim personal identities,and guide social interaction. Customers enjoyed shopping for them; they took pleasure in their beauty, ingenuity or convenience. All manner of new products appeared in shop windows; sophisticated mixed-media advertising seduced customers and created new wants. This unparalleled 'product revolution' provoked philosophers and pundits to proclaim a 'new luxury', one that reached out to the middling and trading classes, unlike the elite and corrupt luxury of old. Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-Century Britain is cultural history at its best, built on a fresh empirical base drawn directly from customs accounts, advertising material, company papers, and contemporary correspondence. Maxine Berg traces how this new consumer society of the eighteenth century and the products first traded, then invented to satisfy it, stimulated industrialization itself. Global markets for the consumer goods of private and domestic life inspired the industrial revolution and British products 'won the world'.
Customer Reviews:
Useful.......2006-08-12
I read this book for a research paper on the Industrial Revolution. It is clearly written and does not try to intimidate readers with overly complicated prose that distract from the main arguments. It is repetitive at times, but overall moves along nicely. For anyone wishing to explore the role of consumerism and consumption in shaping the Industrial Revolution and British society, I would urge you to read this book. It certainly made me reconsider the function of shopping.
Average customer rating:
|
Dictatorship and Demand: The Politics of Consumerism in East Germany (Harvard Historical Studies)
Mark Landsman
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Economic History
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Germany
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Communism & Socialism
| Ideologies
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside History Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 067401698X |
Book Description
An investigation into the politics of consumerism in East Germany during the years between the Berlin Blockade of 1948-49 and the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, Dictatorship and Demand shows how the issue of consumption constituted a crucial battleground in the larger Cold War struggle.
Based on research in recently opened East German state and party archives, this book depicts a regime caught between competing pressures. While East Germany's leaders followed a Soviet model, which fetishized productivity in heavy industry and prioritized the production of capital goods over consumer goods, they nevertheless had to contend with the growing allure of consumer abundance in West Germany. The usual difficulties associated with satisfying consumer demand in a socialist economy acquired a uniquely heightened political urgency, as millions of East Germans fled across the open border.
A new vision of the East-West conflict emerges, one fought as much with washing machines, televisions, and high fashion as with political propaganda, espionage, and nuclear weapons. Dictatorship and Demand deepens our understanding of the Cold War.
Average customer rating:
|
Consumption in the Age Affluence: The World of Food
Ben Fine
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Macroeconomics
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Hospitality, Travel & Tourism
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Gastronomy
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Cultural
| Anthropology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Agricultural Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0415131553 |
Book Description
With growing affluence in the developed world, food has become an increasing focus for attention. The authors argue that in order to understand the extensive and dramatic developments in the world of food, a new interdisciplinary approach is necessary. b /b b i Consumption /i /b b /b b i in the Age of Affluence /i /b successfully addresses food consumption in this way. The volume argues the importance of socioeconomic and cultural factors over diet, in influencing the production, marketing and consumption of different groups of foods. It places food systems theory on sound analytical foundations, draws critically upon food systems literature, includes case studies from the sugar, dairy and meat industries and employs novel statistical techniques to identify and explain distinct patterns of food consumption.
Books:
- Accident Prevention Manual for Business & Industry: Administration & Programs (Occupational Safety and Health) (Occupational Safety and Health Series (Chicago, Ill.).)
- After the Washington Consensus: Restarting Growth and Reform in Latin America
- America the Broke: How the Reckless Spending of The White House and Congress are Bankrupting Our Country and Destroying Our Children's Future
- An Introduction to Third World Theologies (Introduction to Religion)
- As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth
- Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Critical Perspectives on the World Economy)
- Biodiversity Dynamics and Conservation: The Freshwater Fish of Tropical Africa
- Black Power Inc.: The New Voice of Success
- Blade Servers and Virtualization: Transforming Enterprise Computing While Cutting Costs
- Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Interest Rate Models - Theory and Practice: With Smile, Inflation and Credit
- All New Square Foot Gardening
- The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
- Lonely Planet Watersports Guide to Cancun: Isla Mujeres, Playa Del Carmen, Akumal, and Tulum
- The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time
- A Long Way Home: Twelve Years of Words
- Tomorrow Will Be Too Late: The Life of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Apostle of the Eucharist
- MCSA/MCSE 2003 JumpStart
- Practice Ste. A, Classic Toys & Trains, Inc. to Accompany Intermediate Accounting
- The Travels of Lao Can
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy
The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy
The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel
Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak
PowerDown: Options And Actions For A Post-Carbon World
