consumerism

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  5/23/2023
  

  Coca Cola Can't Go Green While Selling Drinks Cold

  by Bart Elmore

  If the worldwide beverage giant wants to reduce its carbon footprint, it's time for it to reverse its historical commitment to make its drinks available cold—in electric coolers—across the globe.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/6/2022
  

  The Origins of the "White Elephant" Party

  Quirky custom or exercise in cutthroat depravity? The roots of White Elephant trace back to the 1890s.

• 
• SOURCE: Contingent
  11/7/2022
  

  When Christmas Started to Creep

  by Bill Black

  The story of "Christmas Creep" is not a linear encroachment of Yuletide on the rest of the calendar, and hinged on political decisions made during the Great Depression and World War II. 

• 
• SOURCE: Wonkette
  8/19/2022
  

  When We All Boycotted a Lousy Beer

  by Erik Loomis

  Latino organizations and the AFL-CIO urged boycotts of Coors beer for its owners politics and the company's antilabor crusade. The company's national sales didn't take a serious hit until student, environmental, and gay activists helped form a broader coalition. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  8/11/2022
  

  Treating Citizens as Consumers Results in One-Sided Fed Decisions

  by Suzanne Kahn

  A set of political choices over the course of the 20th century placed the concerns of consumers over those of workers. While most Americans fit both roles, this priority leaves a great deal of racial inequality in place. 

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  2/14/2022
  

  Selling Hope

  by Wendy A. Woloson

  After a cancer diagnosis, the author still couldn't escape a world of consumerism that relentlessly commodifies even the worst experiences.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  2/2/2022
  

  How 18th C. Quakers Led a Sugar Boycott Against Slavery

  by Julie L. Holcomb

  "In the 1780s, British and American Quakers launched an extensive and unprecedented propaganda campaign against slavery and slave-labor products."

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  11/29/2021
  

  Lizabeth Cohen: Why Americans Buy So Much Stuff

  As holiday shopping overlaps with historic supply chain disruptions, NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Lizabeth Cohen on the economy's reliance on spending and the culture of consumerism in the U.S.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  8/3/2021
  

  The Customer is Always... Insufferable? The History of Today's Beleaguered Service Worker

  Writer Amanda Mull checks with historians Susan Strasser and William Leach to explain why American diners, shoppers and passengers seem to be driven to torment servers, clerks and flight attendants. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/29/2021
  

  Ron Popeil, Inventor and Ubiquitous Infomercial Pitchman, Dies at 86

  "Mr. Popeil’s mastery of television marketing, dating to the 1950s but spanning several decades, made him nearly as recognizable onscreen as the TV and movie stars of his era."

• 
• SOURCE: LitHub
  9/21/2020
  

  The Long Golden Age of Useless, American Crap

  by Wendy A. Woloson

  Consuming habits encouraged by business and embraced by average Americans make crappy stuff part of the American way of life. While decrying waste, the author argues it's important to recognize that cheap goods allow Americans of modest means to participate in the national lifestyle. 

• 
• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  10/2/19
  

  Black Workers and Consumers in the Long Civil Rights Movement

  by Aimee Loiselle

  Historian Aimee Loiselle discusses Traci Parker's new book Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement: Workers, Consumers, and Civil Rights from the 1930s to the 1980s.