Introduction : analyzing work as an experience -- Work in premodern societies -- Work and the American tradition -- The impact of industrialization -- Modern work the American way -- Rearranging modern work : the young, the old, and the female -- Global trends in the past half-century : the...

Preface: why do we need another look at industrial society? -- The agricultural age: the achievements and limitations of several millennia of world history -- Building industrial society: the industrial revolution -- A new social framework -- Innovations in personal life: how deep was the...

Machine generated contents note: Preface ix -- Acknowledgments xii --1 Before consumerism 1 --PART I : The emergence of consumerism in the West 13 -- 2 The emergence of consumerism 15 -- 3 The first causes of consumerism 25 -- 4 Consumerism across the Atlantic: an early imitation 37 -- 5 The...