The American Beauty Industry Encyclopedia

(Hardback)

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Description

This is the first encyclopedia to focus exclusively on the many aspects of the American beauty industry, covering both its diverse origins and its global reach. The American Beauty Industry Encyclopedia is the first compilation to focus exclusively on this pervasive business, covering both its diverse origins and global reach. More than 100 entries were chosen specifically to illuminate the most iconic aspects of the industry's past and present, exploring the meaning of beauty practices and products, often while making analytical use of categories such as gender, race, sexuality, and stages of the lifecycle. Focusing primarily on the late-19th and 20th-century American beauty industryan era of unprecedented expansionthe encyclopedia covers ancient practices and the latest trends and provides a historical examination of institutions, entrepreneurs, styles, and technological innovations. It covers, for example, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, as well as how Asian women today are having muscle fiber removed from their calves to create a more "Western" look. Entries also explore how the industry reflects social movements and concerns that are inextricably bound to religion, feminism, the health and safety of consumers and workers, the treatment of animals, and environmental sustainability.

Reviews

Beginning with Acne, and ending with Wolf, Naomi this encyclopedia of beauty related phenomenon contains 116 entries. Practices, products, icons, media, and institutions pertaining to the American beauty industry are explained and analyzed in one to four page entries. Contributors include academics in the fields of history, women's studies, fashion, and other social sciences. Although a time-line of important beauty related events and discoveries covering the period from 30,000 B.C.E. to 2009 is presented at the beginning, the encyclopedia's focus is on the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Entries contain suggestions for further reading and many include black and white photographs. * Reference & Research Book News *
Opening with a chronology that locates the genesis of beauty concerns in Paleolithic haircutting tools, Willett (Permanent Waves) brings together the scholarship of 42 field specialists. Each contributes several article-style entries on industry entrepreneurs, corporations, oppositional figures, advertising outlets, beauty rituals, beauty plagues, and occasionally frightening 'therapeutic' techniques. These alphabetized entries run several pages in length, are divided by subject heading, and feature informative illustrations, pull-quotes, and sidebars. A ten-page bibliography rounds out this absorbing term-focused subject overview. A wonderful complement to the subject histories Kathy Peiss's Hope in a Jar and Teresa Riordan's Inventing Beauty. * Library Journal *
Willett's coverage of the multibillion-dollar beauty industry will make this title popular in academic, community college, and public libraries. * Booklist *
Recommended. Academic collections supporting lower and upper-level undergraduates and two-year technical program students; general readers. * Choice *
This encyclopedia is an admirable overview of the modern American beauty industry. It is also a valuable reflection of the multidisciplinary nature of the industry and should attract the interests of those in diverse fields, such as cultural studies, gender studies, sociology, history, marketing, media studies, art, and fashion. It is recommended for academic libraries serving these and related departments. . . . This volume is also recommended for public libraries, where even the casual reader will likely have an interest in the topic. * Reference & User Services Quarterly *

Author Bio

Julie Willett is associate professor of history at Texas Tech University, Lubbock.