Building a Market

The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914-1960

Business & Finance, Industries & Professions, Industries, Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book Building a Market by Richard Harris, University of Chicago Press
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Author: Richard Harris ISBN: 9780226317687
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: August 21, 2012
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Richard Harris
ISBN: 9780226317687
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: August 21, 2012
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

Each year, North Americans spend as much money fixing up their homes as they do buying new ones. This obsession with improving our dwellings has given rise to a multibillion-dollar industry that includes countless books, consumer magazines, a cable television network, and thousands of home improvement stores.

Building a Market charts the rise of the home improvement industry in the United States and Canada from the end of World War I into the late 1950s. Drawing on the insights of business, social, and urban historians, and making use of a wide range of documentary sources, Richard Harris shows how the middle-class preference for home ownership first emerged in the 1920s—and how manufacturers, retailers, and the federal government combined to establish the massive home improvement market and a pervasive culture of Do-It-Yourself. 

Deeply insightful, Building a Market is the carefully crafted history of the emergence and evolution of a home improvement revolution that changed not just American culture but the American landscape as well.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Each year, North Americans spend as much money fixing up their homes as they do buying new ones. This obsession with improving our dwellings has given rise to a multibillion-dollar industry that includes countless books, consumer magazines, a cable television network, and thousands of home improvement stores.

Building a Market charts the rise of the home improvement industry in the United States and Canada from the end of World War I into the late 1950s. Drawing on the insights of business, social, and urban historians, and making use of a wide range of documentary sources, Richard Harris shows how the middle-class preference for home ownership first emerged in the 1920s—and how manufacturers, retailers, and the federal government combined to establish the massive home improvement market and a pervasive culture of Do-It-Yourself. 

Deeply insightful, Building a Market is the carefully crafted history of the emergence and evolution of a home improvement revolution that changed not just American culture but the American landscape as well.

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