Household Accounts

Working-Class Family Economies in the Interwar United States

Business & Finance, Economics, Microeconomics, Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book Household Accounts by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery, Cornell University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery ISBN: 9780801454264
Publisher: Cornell University Press Publication: September 25, 2015
Imprint: Cornell University Press Language: English
Author: Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
ISBN: 9780801454264
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication: September 25, 2015
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Language: English

With unprecedented subtlety, compassion and richness of detail, Susan Porter Benson takes readers into the budgets and the lives of working-class families in the United States between the two world wars. Focusing on families from regions across America and of differing races and ethnicities, she argues that working-class families of the time were not on the verge of entering the middle class and embracing mass culture. Rather, she contends that during the interwar period such families lived in a context of scarcity and limited resources, not plenty. Their consumption, Benson argues, revolved around hard choices about basic needs and provided therapeutic satisfactions only secondarily, if at all.Household Accounts is rich with details Benson gathered from previously untapped sources, particularly interviews with women wage earners conducted by field agents of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. She provides a vivid picture of a working-class culture of family consumption: how working-class families negotiated funds; how they made qualitative decisions about what they wanted; how they determined financial strategies and individual goals; and how, in short, families made ends meet during this period. Topics usually central to the histories of consumption—he development of mass consumer culture, the hegemony of middle-class versions of consumption, and the expanded offerings of the marketplace—contributed to but did not control the lives of working-class people. Ultimately, Household Accounts seriously calls into question the usual narrative of a rising and inclusive tide of twentieth-century consumption.

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

With unprecedented subtlety, compassion and richness of detail, Susan Porter Benson takes readers into the budgets and the lives of working-class families in the United States between the two world wars. Focusing on families from regions across America and of differing races and ethnicities, she argues that working-class families of the time were not on the verge of entering the middle class and embracing mass culture. Rather, she contends that during the interwar period such families lived in a context of scarcity and limited resources, not plenty. Their consumption, Benson argues, revolved around hard choices about basic needs and provided therapeutic satisfactions only secondarily, if at all.Household Accounts is rich with details Benson gathered from previously untapped sources, particularly interviews with women wage earners conducted by field agents of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. She provides a vivid picture of a working-class culture of family consumption: how working-class families negotiated funds; how they made qualitative decisions about what they wanted; how they determined financial strategies and individual goals; and how, in short, families made ends meet during this period. Topics usually central to the histories of consumption—he development of mass consumer culture, the hegemony of middle-class versions of consumption, and the expanded offerings of the marketplace—contributed to but did not control the lives of working-class people. Ultimately, Household Accounts seriously calls into question the usual narrative of a rising and inclusive tide of twentieth-century consumption.

More books from Cornell University Press

Cover of the book Killing Others by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book The Battle for Fortune by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book The National Question in Yugoslavia by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book Russia's Unfinished Revolution by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book Constructing the International Economy by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book The Future of the Dollar by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book Privatizing Water by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book The Mediation Dilemma by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book Stopping the Bomb by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book The Just City by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book Stay Alive, My Son by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book Cleaning Up by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book In the Words of E. B. White by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book China's Ascent by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
Cover of the book Protection by Persuasion by Susan Porter Benson, David Montgomery
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy