Packaged pleasures : how technology & marketing revolutionized desire
Cross, Gary S.2014
Book
From the candy bar to the cigarette, records to roller coasters, a technological revolution during the last quarter of the nineteenth century precipitated a colossal shift in human consumption and sensual experience. Food, drink, and many other consumer goods came to be mass-produced, bottled, canned, condensed, and distilled, unleashing new and intensified surges of pleasure, delight, thrill - and addictions. In Packaged Pleasures, Gary S. Cross and Robert N. Proctor delve into an unchartered chapter of American history, shedding new light on the origins of modern consumer culture and how technologies have transformed human sensory experience. In the space of only a few decades, junk foods, cigarettes, movies, recorded sound, and thrill rides brought about a revolution in what it means to taste, smell, see, hear, and touch. New techniques of boxing, labeling, and tubing gave consumers virtually unlimited access to pleasures they could simply unwrap and enjoy. Manufacturers generated a seemingly endless stream of sugar-filled, high-fat foods that were delicious but detrimental to health. Mechanically rolled cigarettes entered the market and quickly addicted millions. And many other packaged pleasures dulled or displaced natural and social delights.
Main title:
Packaged pleasures : how technology & marketing revolutionized desire / Gary S. Cross and Robert N. Proctor.
Imprint:
Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, [2014]
Collation:
352 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm.
Notes:
Formerly CIP. UkIncludes bibliographical references and index.Also issued online.
Linking notes:
ebook version
Contents:
The carrot and the candy bar -- Containing civilization, preserving the ephemeral, going tubular -- The cigarette story -- Superfoods and the engineered origins of the modern sweet tooth -- Portable packets of sound: the birth of the phonograph and record -- Packaging sight: projections, snapshots, and motion pictures -- Packaging fantasy: the amusement park as mechanized circus, electric theater, and commercialized spectacle -- Pleasure on speed and the calibrated life: fast forwarding through the last century -- Red raspberries all the time?
ISBN:
9780226121277 (hbk)
Dewey class:
658.823019658.823
LC class:
T173.8
Language:
English
Subject:
Packaging -- Technological innovations -- Psychological aspectsPackaging -- Technological innovations -- Social aspectsMarketing -- Technological innovations -- Psychological aspectsMarketing -- Technological innovations -- Social aspectsConsumer behaviorTechnological innovations -- Psychological aspectsTechnological innovations -- Social aspects
BRN:
218335
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kathleen Syme Carlton | -Business and IT | BUSIN 658.823 CROS | Available |