Crap

A History of Cheap Stuff in America

Wendy A. Woloson (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

416 Seiten

2022
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
978-0-226-82407-9 (ISBN)

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Crap. We all have it. Filling drawers. Overflowing bins and baskets. Proudly displayed or stuffed in boxes in basements and garages. Big and small. Metal, fabric, and a whole lot of plastic. So much crap. Abundant cheap stuff is about as American as it gets. And it turns out these seemingly unimportant consumer goods offer unique insights into ourselves—our values and our desires.

In Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America, Wendy A. Woloson takes seriously the history of objects that are often cynically-made and easy to dismiss: things not made to last; things we don't really need; things we often don't even really want. Woloson does not mock these ordinary, everyday possessions but seeks to understand them as a way to understand aspects of ourselves, socially, culturally, and economically: Why do we—as individuals and as a culture—possess these things? Where do they come from? Why do we want them? And what is the true cost of owning them?

Woloson tells the history of crap from the late eighteenth century up through today, exploring its many categories: gadgets, knickknacks, novelty goods, mass-produced collectibles, giftware, variety store merchandise. As Woloson shows, not all crap is crappy in the same way—bric-a-brac is crappy in a different way from, say, advertising giveaways, which are differently crappy from commemorative plates. Taking on the full brilliant and depressing array of crappy material goods, the book explores the overlooked corners of the American market and mindset, revealing the complexity of our relationship with commodity culture over time.
By studying crap rather than finely made material objects, Woloson shows us a new way to truly understand ourselves, our national character, and our collective psyche. For all its problems, and despite its disposability, our crap is us.

Wendy A. Woloson is professor of history at Rutgers University-Camden and the author, most recently, of In Hock: Pawning in America from Independence through the Great Depression, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and coeditor of the collection Capitalism by Gaslight: Illuminating the Economy of 19th-Century America.

Introduction: Our Crap, Our Selves

PART 1 A Nation of Cheap Jacks
1. From the Cheapening Mania to Universal Cheapness
2. Cheap Goods in a Chain Store Age

PART 2 Better Living through Gadgetry
3. Perpetual Improvements
4. Gadget Mania

PART 3 Land of the Free
5. Getting Nothing for Something
6. The Price of Loyalty

PART 4 (No) Accounting for Taste
7. The Business of Heritage
8. Connoisseurship for Sale

PART 5 Value Propositions
9. Collecting Commemoration
10. Manufacturing Scarcity

PART 6 But Wait, There’s More
11. Joke’s on You

Epilogue: A World Made of Crap

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	20.09.2022
Zusatzinfo	11 color plates, 105 halftones
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	540 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
ISBN-10	0-226-82407-1 / 0226824071
ISBN-13	978-0-226-82407-9 / 9780226824079
Zustand	Neuware