Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
  • Browse All Articles
  • Popular Articles
  • Cold Call Podcast
  • Managing the Future of Work Podcast
  • About Us
  • Book
  • Leadership
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Entrepreneurship
  • All Topics...
  • Topics
    • COVID-19
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Gender
    • Globalization
    • Leadership
    • Management
    • Negotiation
    • Social Enterprise
    • Strategy
  • Sections
    • Book
    • Podcasts
    • HBS Case
    • In Practice
    • Lessons from the Classroom
    • Op-Ed
    • Research & Ideas
    • Research Event
    • Sharpening Your Skills
    • What Do You Think?
    • Working Paper Summaries
  • Browse All
    • Archive

    A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America

     
    Buying for America—consumption as patriotism.
    3/10/2003
    Today Americans are actively encouraged by political leaders to visit malls, plan family vacations to Disney World and, in general, to consume as part of their patriotic contribution to the war against terrorism. Lizabeth Cohen, in her engrossing new book, A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America, traces the origin of this link between consumption and patriotism that developed in postwar America. Cohen, a professor of American Studies at Harvard University, coins the phrase "Consumers' Republic" to describe a world in which the economy, culture, and politics are "built around the promises of mass consumption, both in terms of material life and the more idealistic goals of greater freedom, democracy, and equality." Cohen traces how mass consumption shaped twentieth century American economic, social, and political life and leaves readers with the intriguing question of how this inheritance of consumption can best be used in the twenty-first.
    ǁ
    Campus Map
    Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
    Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
    Soldiers Field
    Boston, MA 02163
    Email: Editor-in-Chief
    →Map & Directions
    →More Contact Information
    • Make a Gift
    • Site Map
    • Jobs
    • Harvard University
    • Trademarks
    • Policies
    • Accessibility
    • Digital Accessibility
    Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College