Communism And Consumerism

Author : Timo Vihavainen
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004303979
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Communism and Consumerism written by Timo Vihavainen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book studies the world of the Soviet consumer and the specific problems, which arose both for the consumer and the Soviet state in a command economy of chronic shortages. It concentrates on the latter half of the Soviet period, but also the longue durée of Russian consumerism is discussed.

Author : S. A. Smith
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191667528
Total Pages : 672 pages
Book Rating : 4.27/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism written by S. A. Smith and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-01-09 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The impact of Communism on the twentieth century was massive, equal to that of the two world wars. Until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, historians knew relatively little about the secretive world of communist states and parties. Since then, the opening of state, party, and diplomatic archives of the former Eastern Bloc has released a flood of new documentation. The thirty-five essays in this Handbook, written by an international team of scholars, draw on this new material to offer a global history of communism in the twentieth century. In contrast to many histories that concentrate on the Soviet Union, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism is genuinely global in its coverage, paying particular attention to the Chinese Revolution. It is 'global', too, in the sense that the essays seek to integrate history 'from above' and 'from below', to trace the complex mediations between state and society, and to explore the social and cultural as well as the political and economic realities that shaped the lives of citizens fated to live under communist rule. The essays reflect on the similarities and differences between communist states in order to situate them in their socio-political and cultural contexts and to capture their changing nature over time. Where appropriate, they also reflect on how the fortunes of international communism were shaped by the wider economic, political, and cultural forces of the capitalist world. The Handbook provides an informative introduction for those new to the field and a comprehensive overview of the current state of scholarship for those seeking to deepen their understanding.

Author : Karl Gerth
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108882641
Total Pages : 397 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Unending Capitalism written by Karl Gerth and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-14 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What forces shaped the twentieth-century world? Capitalism and communism are usually seen as engaged in a fight-to-the-death during the Cold War. With the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party aimed to end capitalism. Karl Gerth argues that despite the socialist rhetoric of class warfare and egalitarianism, Communist Party policies actually developed a variety of capitalism and expanded consumerism. This negated the goals of the Communist Revolution across the Mao era (1949–1976) down to the present. Through topics related to state attempts to manage what people began to desire - wristwatches and bicycles, films and fashion, leisure travel and Mao badges - Gerth challenges fundamental assumptions about capitalism, communism, and countries conventionally labeled as socialist. In so doing, his provocative history of China suggests how larger forces related to the desire for mass-produced consumer goods reshaped the twentieth-century world and remade people's lives.

Author : Paulina Bren
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199827664
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Communism Unwrapped written by Paulina Bren and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-08-08 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communism Unwrapped reveals the complex world of consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe, exploring the ways people shopped, ate, drank, smoked, cooked, acquired, assessed and exchanged goods. These everyday experiences, the editors and contributors argue, were central to the way that communism was lived in its widely varied contexts in the region. From design, to production, to retail sales and black market exchange, Communism Unwrapped follows communist goods from producer to consumer, tracing their circuitous routes. In the communist world this journey was rife with its own meanings, shaped by the special political and social circumstances of these societies. In examining consumption behind the Iron Curtain, this volume brings dimension and nuance to understandings of the communist period and the history of consumerism.

Author : Paulina Bren
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199827672
Total Pages : 430 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Communism Unwrapped written by Paulina Bren and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-20 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communism Unwrapped is a collection of essays that unwraps the complex world of consumption under communism in postwar Eastern Europe, featuring new work by both American and European scholars writing from variety of disciplinary perspectives. The result is a fresh look at everyday life under communism that explores the ways people shopped, ate, drank, smoked, cooked, acquired, exchanged and assessed goods. These phenomena, the editors argue, were central to the way that communism was lived and experienced in its widely varied contexts in the region. Consumption pervaded everyday life far more than most other political and social phenomena. From design, to production, to retail sales and black market exchange, Communism Unwrapped follows communist goods from producer to consumer, tracing their circuitous routes. In the communist world this journey was rife with its own meanings, shaped by the special political and social circumstances of these societies. In examining consumption behind the Iron Curtain, this volume builds on a new field of study. It brings dimension and nuance to our understanding of the communist period and a new perspective to our current analyses of consumerism.

Author : Natalya Chernyshova
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135046263
Total Pages : 526 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Soviet Consumer Culture in the Brezhnev Era written by Natalya Chernyshova and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-26 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After decades of turmoil and trauma, the Brezhnev era brought stability and an unprecedented rise in living standards to the Soviet Union, enabling ordinary people to enjoy modern consumer goods on an entirely new scale. This book analyses the politics and economics of the state’s efforts to improve living standards, and shows how mass consumption was often used as an instrument of legitimacy, ideology and modernization. However, the resulting consumer revolution brought its own problems for the socialist regime. Rising well-being and the resulting ethos of consumption altered citizens’ relationship with the state and had profound consequences for the communist project. The book uses a wealth of sources to explore the challenge that consumer modernity was posing to Soviet ‘mature socialism’ between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s. It combines analysis of economic policy and public debates on consumerism with the stories of ordinary people and their attitudes to fashion, Western goods and the home. The book contests the notion that Soviet consumers were merely passive, abused, eternally queuing victims and that the Brezhnev era was a period of ‘stagnation’, arguing instead that personal consumption provided the incentive and the space for individuals to connect and interact with society and the regime even before perestroika. This book offers a lively account of Soviet society and everyday life during a period which is rapidly becoming a new frontier of historical research.

Author : LiAnne Yu
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0745684572
Total Pages : 179 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Consumption in China written by LiAnne Yu and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-11-05 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consumption practices in China have been transformed at an unprecedented pace. Under Mao Zedong, the state controlled nearly all aspects of what people consumed, from everyday necessities to entertainment and the media; today, shoddy state-run stores characterized by a dearth of choices have made way for luxury malls and hypermarkets filled with a multitude of products. Consumption in China explores what it means to be a consumer in the world’s fastest growing economy. LiAnne Yu provides a multi-faceted portrait of the impact of increased consumption on urban spaces, social status, lifestyles, identities, and freedom of expression. The book also examines what is unique and what is universal about how consumer practices in China have developed, investigating the factors that differentiate them from what has been observed among the already mature consumer markets. Behind the often staggering statistics about China are the very human stories that highlight the emotional and social triggers behind consumption. This engaging book is a valuable resource for students, scholars and business professionals interested in a deeper understanding of what motivates China’s consumers, and what challenges they face as more aspects of everyday life become commoditized.

Author : Judd Stitziel
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Fashioning Socialism written by Judd Stitziel and published by . This book was released on 2005-08 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stitziel examines the story of communist haute couture, fashion shows, seasonal clearance sales, the textile and garment industries, and everyday consumer practices, exploring the paradoxical causes, forms, and consequences of East Germany's attempt to create a communist consumer culture during the Cold War.

Author : Lizabeth Cohen
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307555364
Total Pages : 578 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Consumers' Republic written by Lizabeth Cohen and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-12-24 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this signal work of history, Bancroft Prize winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lizabeth Cohen shows how the pursuit of prosperity after World War II fueled our pervasive consumer mentality and transformed American life. Trumpeted as a means to promote the general welfare, mass consumption quickly outgrew its economic objectives and became synonymous with patriotism, social equality, and the American Dream. Material goods came to embody the promise of America, and the power of consumers to purchase everything from vacuum cleaners to convertibles gave rise to the power of citizens to purchase political influence and effect social change. Yet despite undeniable successes and unprecedented affluence, mass consumption also fostered economic inequality and the fracturing of society along gender, class, and racial lines. In charting the complex legacy of our “Consumers’ Republic” Lizabeth Cohen has written a bold, encompassing, and profoundly influential book.

Author : Aaron Bastani
Publisher : Verso Books
ISBN 13 : 1786632640
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Fully Automated Luxury Communism written by Aaron Bastani and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first decade of the twenty-first century marked the demise of the current world order. Despite widespread acknowledgement of these disruptive crises, the proposed response from the mainstream remains the same. Against the confines of this increasingly limited politics, a new paradigm has emerged. Fully Automated Luxury Communism claims that new technologies will liberate us from work, providing the opportunity to build a society beyond both capitalism and scarcity. Automation, rather than undermining an economy built on full employment, is instead the path to a world of liberty, luxury and happiness. For everyone. In his first book, radical political commentator Aaron Bastani conjures a new politics: a vision of a world of unimaginable hope, highlighting how we move to energy abundance, feed a world of nine billion, overcome work, transcend the limits of biology and build meaningful freedom for everyone. Rather than a final destination, such a society heralds the beginning of history. Fully Automated Luxury Communism promises a radically new left future for everyone.