Department stores represented one of the most advertising-intensive sectors of American inter-war retailing. Yet it has been argued that a competitive spiral of high advertising spending, to match the challenge of other local department stores, contributed to a damaging inflation of costs that...

Door-to-door selling was a key factor behind the particularly rapid interwar diffusion of vacuum cleaners among British households, relative to other quot;high-ticketquot; labor-saving appliances. Yet the door-to-door system incurred both high distribution costs and considerable...

Books reviewed in this article: Andrew Hinde, England's population S. H. Rigby (ed.), A companion to Britain in the later middle ages Michael Snodin and John Styles, Design and the decorative arts Alexandra Shepard, Meanings of manhood in early modern England Steven King and Alannah Tomkins...

This article examines the ways in which insurance companies modified their investment policies during the interwar years, arguing that this period marked the start of the transition from 'traditional' to 'modern' investment practice. Economic and financial conditions raised considerable doubts...