Engineered to Sell
European migr s and the Making of Consumer Capitalism
$93.21
- Paperback
352 pages
- Release Date
20 November 2019
Summary
The mid-twentieth-century marketing world influenced nearly every aspect of American culture—music, literature, politics, economics, consumerism, race relations, gender, and more. In Engineered to Sell, Jan L. Logemann traces the transnational careers of consumer engineers in advertising, market research, and commercial design who transformed capitalism from the 1930s through the 1960s. He argues that the history of marketing consumer goods is not a story of American exceptionalism. Instead, the careers of immigrants point to the limits of the “Americanization” paradigm. Logemann explains the rise of a dynamic world of goods and examines how and why consumer engineering was shaped by transatlantic exchanges. From Austrian psychologists and little-known social scientists to the illustrious Bauhaus artists, the emigrés at the center of this story illustrate the vibrant cultural and commercial connections between metropolitan centers: Vienna and New York; Paris and Chicago; Berlin and San Francisco. By focusing on the transnational lives of emigré consumer researchers, marketers, and designers, Engineered to Sell details the processes of cultural translation and adaptation that mark both the midcentury transformation of American marketing and the subsequent European shift to “American” consumer capitalism.
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780226660158 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 022666015X |
| Author: | Jan L. Logemann |
| Publisher: | The University of Chicago Press |
| Imprint: | University of Chicago Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 352 |
| Release Date: | 20 November 2019 |
| Weight: | 534g |
| Dimensions: | 152mm x 229mm |
You Can Find This Book In
Critics Review
“Logemann tells many interesting and meaningful stories… [His] study opens up a field of research whose potential is far from exhausted.”
“As a business history, Logemann’s book is excellent. It is an important contribution to our understanding of the ways in which international networks and small business consultancies (“startups,” in today’s parlance) used a range of modernist design techniques and social science research methods to engineer the postwar Keynesian consumer societies that fueled the Trente Glorieuses in Europe and the US.“– “Europe Now”
“Engineered to Sell delivers a fresh look at the development of consumer capitalism in the United States and Europe by focusing on the substantial contributions made by German and Austrian émigré designers, psychologists, and advertisers to the culture of buying and selling in the United States. Importantly, Logemann argues as well that despite their role in its development, many of these same experts recognized the more destructive aspects of American-style consumerism and warned against fully embracing the model on their return to Europe in the 1950s.”– “Pamela Swett, McMaster University”
“Engineered to Sell traces the history of an educated, intellectually sophisticated group of immigrants who came to the United States from Central Europe at midcentury and helped to transform market research, marketing practice, product design, and corporate identity branding. These Central Europeans carried their traditions and their theories, their drawing boards and their design strategies, all of which they adapted to the American scene. This important story of cultural transfer not only widens our understanding midcentury American capitalism but also provides a much-needed counterpoint to familiar narratives on the Americanization of postwar Europe.”– “Regina Lee Blaszczyk, University of Leeds”
Jan L. Logemann
Jan Logemann is assistant professor at the Institute for Economic and Social History at the University of G ttingen. He is the editor of The Development of Consumer Credit in Global Perspective, and the author of Trams or Tailfins: Public and Private Prosperity in Postwar West Germany and the United States, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.