In Dream Worlds, Rosalind Williams examines the origins and moral implications of consumer society, providing a cultural history of its emergence in late nineteenth-century France.
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"An adventurous, learned, and ambitious book. It addresses an issue historians have long ignored, to our general impoverishment. And it introduces, or reintroduces, a series of fascinating social critics absorbed by one of the major social movements of our time." -- Neil Harris, Technology and Culture
"By reading the sociology of Durkheim and Tarde as a gauge of the power of consumerism in the period, Williams illuminates the motives of sociological theorists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. . . . Extremely beneficial for sociologists." -- Chandra Mukerji, Contemporary Sociology
"Dream Worlds makes a genuine contribution to understanding how hopes and desires came to be invested in goods." -- New York Times Book Review
"Insightful and well-written. . . . Williams' close attention to language and style (in both the narrowest and broadest senses of that word) makes her work particularly interesting and informative." -- Barbara T. Cooper, Nineteenth-Century French Studies
"The abundance of detail, the use of literary examples, the felicitous turns of phrase, all amplify the argument by creating a strong sense of time and place. Not content just to describe the consequences of the consumer revolution, Rosalind H. Williams also describes the contemporary wonder and bewilderment. . . . A signal contribution to the history of social science." -- Priscilla P. Clark, American Journal of Sociology
"By reading the sociology of Durkheim and Tarde as a gauge of the power of consumerism in the period, Williams illuminates the motives of sociological theorists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. . . . Extremely beneficial for sociologists." -- Chandra Mukerji, Contemporary Sociology
"Dream Worlds makes a genuine contribution to understanding how hopes and desires came to be invested in goods." -- New York Times Book Review
"Insightful and well-written. . . . Williams' close attention to language and style (in both the narrowest and broadest senses of that word) makes her work particularly interesting and informative." -- Barbara T. Cooper, Nineteenth-Century French Studies
"The abundance of detail, the use of literary examples, the felicitous turns of phrase, all amplify the argument by creating a strong sense of time and place. Not content just to describe the consequences of the consumer revolution, Rosalind H. Williams also describes the contemporary wonder and bewilderment. . . . A signal contribution to the history of social science." -- Priscilla P. Clark, American Journal of Sociology
About the Author
Rosalind H. Williams is Dean for Undergraduate Education and Metcalf Professor of Writing at MIT and author of Notes on the Underground: An Essay on Technology, Society, and the Imagination.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The Consumer Class of the Renaissance Courts-Finding the origins of modern consumer society requires a journey in the reverse direction from Denise's migration, a journey away from the dazzle of city department stores, back to the French countryside. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
decorative arts reform, false gilt, decorative arts movement, arts reformers, dandy tradition, democratized luxury, social teleology, moral invention, consumer revolution, consumer cooperation, modern consumption, consumer cooperatives, consumer class, consumer pleasures, modern consumer society, consumer objects, aristocratic model Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, Art Nouveau, Critical Thought, School of Nimes, Louis Weber, Third Republic, Charles Gide, Eiffel Tower, Grand Palais, Middle Ages, Beau Brummell, New York, Rotch Visual Collection, Sciences Morales, Social League of Shoppers, Camille Mauclair, Catholic Church, French Revolution, Monumental Gateway, Institut de France, World War, Louis Napoleon, Church Fathers, Courtesy of Architectural Record New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The Consumer Class of the Renaissance Courts-Finding the origins of modern consumer society requires a journey in the reverse direction from Denise's migration, a journey away from the dazzle of city department stores, back to the French countryside. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
decorative arts reform, false gilt, decorative arts movement, arts reformers, dandy tradition, democratized luxury, social teleology, moral invention, consumer revolution, consumer cooperation, modern consumption, consumer cooperatives, consumer class, consumer pleasures, modern consumer society, consumer objects, aristocratic model Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, Art Nouveau, Critical Thought, School of Nimes, Louis Weber, Third Republic, Charles Gide, Eiffel Tower, Grand Palais, Middle Ages, Beau Brummell, New York, Rotch Visual Collection, Sciences Morales, Social League of Shoppers, Camille Mauclair, Catholic Church, French Revolution, Monumental Gateway, Institut de France, World War, Louis Napoleon, Church Fathers, Courtesy of Architectural Record New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 46
books:
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37
books
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- The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations by Norbert Elias on 5 pages
- Laws of Imitation by Gabriel Tarde on 4 pages
- Suicide by Emile Durkheim on page 348, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Division of Labor in Society by Emile Durkheim on page 346, page 347, and Back Matter
- Against the Grain (À Rebours) by J. K. Huysmans on page 127, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 46 books this book cites
- Civilization without Sexes: Reconstructing Gender in Postwar France, 1917-1927 (Women in Culture and Society) by Mary Louise Roberts in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Consumerism in World History: The Global Transformation of Desire (Themes in World History) by Peter Stearns on page 65, and page 77
- The Economy of Icons: How Business Manufactures Meaning by Ernest Sternberg in Back Matter, and Index
- French Cultural Studies: An Introduction by Jill Forbes on page 53, and page 94
- French Modern: Norms and Forms of the Social Environment by Paul Rabinow in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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