Imagining Consumers

An innovative study of an important dimension of the consumer revolution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries... For its emphasis on small firms, on the importance of interactions between consumers and producers, and on the role that women shoppers played in shaping business practices, Imagining Consumers will be recognized as an important contribution to business and consumer history.

A perceptive and dense history of china and glassware manufacturers and retailers... Blaszczyk makes a convincing case that those who study consumer culture can benefit from greater understanding of these links between manufacturers, consumers, and the many professionals who influence the place where those two meet: the product.

A must read for all who seek to understand the evolution of modern consumer society.

Blaszczyk's cultural and business history of the American crockery industry nicely describes how some firms imagined their consumers and how they reponded to those consumers' desires.

Blaszczyk grounds her arguments on something not seen before: a cornucopia of archival research, painstakingly acquired from untapped company archives of key firms in the household furnishings business. Blaszczyk's conclusion is bold. 'Make no mistake,' she writes, 'supply did not create demand in home furnishings, but demand determined supply.' Imagining Consumers is a careful, fine-grained monograph whose claims are firmly tethered to its assembled evidence.

A remarkable and exemplary history of the US ceramics and glass industries, spanning the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries. Perhaps the main achievement of Imagining Consumers is its dogged investigation of how manufacturers engaged with consumers in order to produce more appealing goods.

Blaszczyk has written a fascinating account of negotiations between producers and consumers in the glass and ceramics industries, illustrating a symbiotic process by which manufacturers attempted to discover and keep up with the shifting demands of ordinary people. This study will transform our understanding of the history of design, marketing, and consumer culture.