Summary Of A Consumer's Republic By Lizabeth Cohen

Elements and Context of A Consumer's Republic
Lizabeth Cohen’s books “A Consumer’s Republic” argues that post-war America was deeply affected by mass consumerism and new trends in marketing, purchasing, home-ownership, and personal identities. This report describes the goals and source material of the author, as well as providing a summary of her narrative, a personal reflection on it, and an analysis of her place within historical and scholarly study of this period.
Author goals and source material
In the prologue to the book, the author describes her highly typical (for a middle-class white family) upbringing in various east coast suburbs in the 1960s and 70s. Because consumerism and mass-marketing are aimed primarily at large demographic

groups to maximize profit, Cohen’s particular upbringing is highly relevant to the story of the growth of consumerism. Indeed, the process of writing the book itself allowed her to “come to terms with the benefits and costs of having grown up during the prosperous decades following World War II, in a society where the pursuit of…prosperity defined many…dimensions of life…” (Cohen 7). Cohen believes that, only through a critical analysis of mass-consumerism can modern Americans fully understand their historical and cultural context.
Cohen’s central argument is that the post-war years in America brought about a significant change in lifestyle, work, home life, and social interaction.

This change, she argues, was largely a function of the shift to mass consumerism, rather than merely an effect of the Cold War (Cohen 8). The theoretical basis for these ideas were found, by Cohen, in earlier writers such as Thorstein Veblen, who developed the concept of ‘conspicuous consumption’ at the end of the 19th century, and economist Simon Patten, who showed how consumerism helped Americans to move beyond ethnic and racial barriers (Cohen 10). Other thinkers who developed these ideas, such as David Potter, E. Franklin Frazier, John Kenneth Galbraith and David Riesman also contribute to Cohen’s background of research, and the development of her thesis (Cohen 13). She uses her title “Consumer’s Republic” as a catch-all phrase describing the economic/political/cultural post-war effort to unite the country with shared values, and expand its economic prosperity and political

dominance.
Narrative analysis
Cohen’s narrative, and the structure of her thesis, is broken down into four major parts, with two subchapters in each. The first section seeks to provide the historical context out of which the ‘Consumer’s Republic’ emerged, and thus focuses on the effects of the Depression, and the Second World War itself. Cohen shows how the long climb out of Depression was itself orchestrated in such a way as to promote the idea of ‘citizen consumers,’ and the dire need for jobs was largely answered by the wage labor positions of companies utilizing mass industrialization, like Ford (Cohen 23).
Consumerism became a focal point for FDR and other New Deal era liberals who sought effective ways to pull the country out of the major economic slump while also promoting their core principles: “New Dealers from FDR on down persisted in trumpeting the consumer interest as a way of making more palatable the state expansion in which they were engaged” (Cohen 30). Cohen thus demonstrates how a range of groups, even including women’s rights groups, found that increasing consumerism could be utilized in their own agendas, and thus moved toward it as a single, united force. Later, the war itself would require increased levels of production at home, and a sense of nationalism moved through the US population, further uniting the American consciousness toward an economy of production and purchase (Cohen 72).
Section two describes the unprecedented increase in prosperity experienced by Americans after World War II, in terms of ‘reconversion’ and commerce. As incomes rose, and national output doubled over a ten-year period, no one could deny that mass consumption was carving out a place for the US as the dominant economic superpower (Cohen 121). In housing, for example, houses built for private ownership far outnumbered those intended for rental, as mass fabrication and construction made them affordable to larger and larger portions of society (Cohen 123). Soon, these houses were filled with televisions, air conditioners, and washing machines, as the economy expanded and raised the standard of living for almost all levels of society.
If general prosperity was on the rise, inequality and discrimination still played a major role in keeping American society stratified. The promise of the American Dream led many veterans and others to take out substantial loans which left them in ‘ruinous debt’ (Cohen 158). Female veterans and wives of veterans were blatantly discriminated against in the distribution of GI bill benefits, and many of the millions of new homeowners found themselves underwater in terms of payments and equity (Cohen 159). Meanwhile, segregation allowed outright discrimination to continue against blacks, whose homes, schools, and job opportunities were far inferior to those of whites (Cohen 181). Eventually, leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King would speak out against the wave of capitalism which was leaving the black population behind.
Section three expands on the issues of residential construction and the emergence of regional shopping centers, both of which were intended to solve the problem of severe housing shortages and access to goods and services (Cohen 199). In reality, the new suburban neighborhoods and shopping centers had negative effects that sometimes outweighed the positive. Cohen describes the marginalization of families living on the outskirts of town, and the harmful effects of the new commercial centers on the old market centers which had been the lifeblood of communities for previous generations (Cohen 202). As a result, many community-owned market areas were ruined, and sold into private hands, the owners of which could then impose racist and prejudicial store/restaurant policies which divided communities, rather than uniting them (Cohen 245).
Finally, Cohen uses section four of her book to explore the political and cultural elements involved with mass consumption. Cohen describes the shift from mass-marketing to market segmentation, or the strategy of aiming for a particular segment of society, rather than as much of it as possible. By appealing to certain demographics’ beliefs and self-image, companies found ways to establish loyal and consistent customer bases (Cohen 299). More disturbing is the shift toward segmentation in political campaigning, a change which has only solidified over time, which found politicians disregarding the values of huge swathes of public opinion in order to appeal to certain groups only (Cohen 322). Cohen also discusses the eventual collapse of the earlier, more simplistic model of consumerism in the late 60s and the 70s, and traces the effects of this period into the modern day.
Personal reflection and lessons learned
Although I was broadly aware of the beginnings of mass consumerism in the post-war period, I had not fully understood the ways in which the political establishment of the time intentionally used the promise of prosperity to mobilize the American population in a united effort and frame of mind.

Cohen also skillfully demonstrated the distinction between what was promised to the American public and what was delivered and thus encapsulated several cultural elements of the period and many different perspectives under one overarching concept: the consumer’s republic. Most interesting of all, personally, was the discussion in part four of the political adoption of market segmentation. The rise of political extremism, anger, and personal identification with political parties which is perhaps more intense today than ever, stems from this shift in political strategies, which itself was inspired by new ideas in the marketing of products. It seems clear that the rise of partisan news outlets is a very contemporary expression of this same trend. The corporations running these channels, stations, and websites, have clearly learned the lesson that it is more profitable to orient ‘news’ and stories toward a particular group, than to attempt to appeal to the whole country through unbiased

reporting.
Context within history and conclusion
Among historians, the post-war period and the rise of consumerism has been explained by many different means. Although Cohen’s thesis is not extremely controversial, she does suggest that other approaches have been less than perfect. Many historians, for example, focus on the Cold War as the epicenter and defining context of the American story after World War II. Cohen, however, states that “much of importance in America’s postwar history happened outside of the Cold War frame, and applying it too exclusively can obscure other crucial developments” (Cohen 8). The author also objects to the historical tradition of defining the roles of citizens and consumers as opposites. Instead, her book argues that these two identities have been intimately connected among Americans, and that the line between consumerism and participation in civic matters is extremely blurry, if a line exists at all (Cohen 9). In this way, Cohen outlines a historically unique approach to her subject matter which emphasizes the dominance of mass consumerism over all other influences, on American life.