All Consuming Images: The Politics Of Style In Contemporary Culture (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Each week on television, a taut-faced woman named Elsa Klensch hosts a program titled "Style" The prime focus of the show revolves around the new..." (more)
Key Phrases: varnished barbarism, rational modernism, consumer engineering, United States, New York, Art Nouveau (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For prosperous townfolk of 15th century Europe, the ability to purchase an illuminated Book of Hours was a sign that one had "arrived." Today, buying a Picasso print or a Porsche might fulfill a similar function for the status-conscious. According to Ewen ( Captains of Consciousness ), the main difference is that, for us, style has come to dominate substance. We are a society in love with surfacea look, a sound, a pose; style is a tool to construct selfhood, a vehicle to sell things. Ewen sees the apex of this trend in the elevation of a mediocre Hollywood actor to the U.S. presidency. Illustrated with photos of industrial designs and advertisements, this devastating, incisive essay explores the ways modernist aesthetics meshes with the needs of an efficient workplace, the invention of celebrityhood, the cult of the body beautiful and the creation of "style industries" devoted to sustaining perpetual novelty.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"An engaging and provocative work. . .sharp, beautifully written." -- Chicago Tribune

"Stuart Ewen is one of the foremost interpreters today of our culture." -- Bill Moyers

"With consistently sharp arguments. . .Ewen succeeds in showing style to be a ubiquitous form of social control, illustrating the many ways in which we are what we wear." -- The Los Angeles Times Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; Revised edition (March 19, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465001017
• ISBN-13: 978-0465001019
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #164,001 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ewen describes how image overcomes substance in America., May 16, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Fairfield, CT) - See all my reviews

In All Consuming Images, Stuart Ewen evaluates how style has affected the various domains of society, the politics of style, and the ability of style to bring about a universal way of seeing things in our society. In today's consumer society, it is common to observe a free occupation with style, appearance, and image. This obsession with style has become so overwhelming that it has begun to affect the way we value ourselves and those we come in contact with. Ewen describes how each style transforms as time goes by, and each new culture has a different way of viewing things. Ewen explains that style is an individual circumstance, each person has a different perspective and a different way of expressing themselves through style. Ewen examines how there is a struggle to move up the social ladder, and style was a component for this upward movement. Middle class individuals were now able to present an image of containing wealth that they may not really have possessed. In the society of mass produced goods, people began to use stylized items as a personal "identity kit"(Ewen, 70). Stuart Ewen also discusses the idea of "less is more". He relates this concept to architecture, clothing, and women's obsession with being thin. Ewen began by describing how women began to leave the home more often, and society began to impose higher expectations on body ideals. Female bodies were portrayed as being perfectly thin in all aspects of the media. Ewen ends his book by explaining how the world we live in is more concerned with image and appearance than substance. Individuality within a person has become invisible if it does not include some aspect of style. Style in our country has emerged at such a rapid pace and at such a large scale. As new images and styles are presented, we must remember what is thoroughly important, the self within. Ewen concludes by stating that "there must be a reconciliation of image and meaning, a reinvigoration of a politics of substance"(Ewen, 271).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Derivative, June 14, 2007

By	Rev. Cherrycoke (United States) - See all my reviews

The writing here may be interesting, but the theory is old--still correct, but old. If you want to read theories of simulation, start with Karl Marx on commodity fetishism, then go to Adorno and Horkheimer's "The Culture Industry," Jean Baudrillard's "The Precession of Simulacra," and Marshall McLuhan, especially _Understanding Media_. The idea that media and images have become the real, that life not only imitates art but is art--and really bad, commercial, ethically vapid art at that--is the foundational insight of postmodern theory.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye Opening..., March 13, 1999

By A Customer

Simply amazing. After reading this book, I am more aware than ever of the images in my life, the silent and persuasive language they speak. Living in the U. S., especially, this is an ideal travel guide through the virtual reality that surrounds us. The style autobiographies are wonderful.