Consumers Against Capitalism: Consumer Cooperation in Europe, North America, and Japan, 1840D1990

(Paperback)

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There is a growing scholarly interest in the historical development of what has been called a "consumer society." In this important collection of essays, historians from six different countries trace the history of the consumer cooperative movement in much of western Europe and North America from its inception to the present. The consumer cooperative, as the contributors show, bears directly on the role of socialist parties, the nascent feminist movement, and conceptions of the worker's role in a changing economy and society in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first book to explore consumer cooperation on a comparative, international level, Consumers Against Capitalism fills a significant gap in the literature of labor history. It also makes a significant contribution to the literature on consumerism and capitalist culture. It is essential reading for students and scholars of labor history, women's history, and social movements.

Reviews

An important book on a topic of considerable current interest. -- Timothy Guinnane, Yale University
[This anthology] constitutes an insightful and stimulating first step towards the explanation of the infrastructure of consumption in the age of capitalism. . . It is to the great merit of Ellen Furlough and Carl Strikwerda to have drawn attention to the possibility of historical alternatives in an area as seemingly "naturally" capitalist as commercial activities in nineteenth and twentieth century First World societies. -- Gerd-Rainer Horn, Western Oregon University * H-Business and Eh.Net *
All in all, this book is to be recommended as a very useful guide to the international development of consumer cooperation. -- Eric Hopkins, Universities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton * Journal of Economic History *
This volume will be of considerable value to a range of scholars. Uniformly well-organized and capably written, the essays composing this volume will pique the interest on most readers. * Business History *
It seldom happens that a book lives up to its grandiose promises, but this one really "fills a significant gap in the literature of labor history." * International Review Of Social History *
An exceptionally interesting collection. . . All the articles in this collection are solid, well-informed contributions that cast new light on working-class culture in their respective countries. -- Michael Hanagan, New School for Social Research

Author Bio

Ellen Furlough is associate professor of history at Kenyon College and the author of Consumer Cooperation in France, 1834-1930: The Politics of Consumption (Cornell).

Carl Strikwerda is associate professor of history and chair of the European studies program at the University of Kansas. He is the author of A House Divided: Catholics, Socialists, and Flemish Nationalists in Nineteenth Century Belgium (Rowman & Littlefield, 1997) and the editor, with Camille Guerin-Gonzales, of The Politics of Immigrant Workers: Labor Activism and Migration in the World Economy since 1830.