Selling Culture: Magazines, Markets, and the Class at the Turn of the Century (Haymarket) [Hardcover]

Richard M. Ohmann (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1859849741 | ISBN-13: 978-1859849743 | Publication Date: March 1996

At the turn of the nineteenth century, American capitalism was in crisis, producing too many goods for too few buyers, that crisis was ultimately resolved in a novel, historically decisive manner by creating whole new categories of consumer goods and by appealing to new groups of people who might purchase them. What we now recognise as consumer society originated in that period, and it was mass culture, the first 'culture industry', that helped bring it into being. In a magisterial study of the process, Richard Ohmann surveys the new practices of advertising, mass distribution of goods, and, most important, the birth of the inexpensive mass-audience magazine to analyse the creation of the American professional-managerial class. Drawing upon work in economic, cultural, and social history, he integrates the seemingly disparate phenomena of modern middle-class life in a coherent tale of how the class was formed and came to occupy the foreground in the malign ideological formation, 'the American Dream.' Elegantly written, lucidly argued, and brimming with arresting facts and incidents, Selling Culture offers the definitive account of the relation between culture and economy in the transformation of the United States into a mass-consumption, mass-mediated society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing, in part, from what the author, a former editor of College English, calls "the broad marxist tradition," this is a highly ideological social and economic history of the rise of low-cost, high-circulation monthly magazines in America at the end of the 19th century. The era marked what Ohmann sees as the beginning of a nationwide mass culture rooted in advertising that continues to this day, a culture based on using information and entertainment as commodities. Thanks to developments in technology, Ohmann notes, the U.S. moved from being an industrial country to a marketing one; and along the way, a professional managerial class established itself. Among the magazines given special attention (including a study of the fiction published) are Munsey's, McClure's and Ladies' Home Journal. Topics touched on include the birth of department stores, mail order and chain stores; the rise of the suburbs; and the triumph of advertising agencies, which, according to Ohmann, articulated the goals and formulated the strategies of "the big bourgeoisie." Less politically-minded readers might be tempted to skip the ideological sections and mine this highly researched study for the rich?indeed lavish?amount of raw information it contains on the growth of popular culture. Illustrations.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Richard Ohmann is an author of rare talents: a theoretically sophisticated critic who never lets theory overpower historical evidence, never loses his eye for the sparkling anecdote or the revealing detail. Selling Culture is a gem of a book." - Jackson Lears, author of Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America "Richard Ohmann's excursions into the realms of American advertising and mass journalism are cultural studies at its best." - Patrick Brantlinger

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 411 pages
• Publisher: Verso (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859849741
• ISBN-13: 978-1859849743
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,136,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, provocative book., November 12, 2009

By 

E. Timke "wiswede" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selling Culture: Magazines, Markets, and the Class at the Turn of the Century (The Haymarket Series) (Paperback)

This is an excellent, provocative book. Unfortunately, it's out of print as of the date of this review, so if you find a used copy, definitely snatch it up if you can!

0 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ohmann is a genius, though this is not his best book., September 15, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selling Culture: Magazines, Markets, and the Class at the Turn of the Century (Haymarket) (Hardcover)

Some critics consider this to be Ohmann's best work, which is odd...a little like praising Isaac Newton for his religious writings rather than gravity or calculus. Richard Ohmann is the genius who wrote "Shaw, the Style and the Man." This landmark book contains a new method for analysing style (all style, not just Shaw's) which lends itself to immediate application in the teaching of composition and rhetoric. The Shaw book is an exciting and useful book, not the usual academic cant. Every teacher of english should commit murder if necessary to acquire it.

0 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lackluster piece full of superfluous language., September 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Selling Culture: Magazines, Markets, and the Class at the Turn of the Century (Haymarket) (Hardcover)

This man writes a lot, but says nothing.