Keeping Up with the Joneses

Description

"Keeping Up with the Joneses traces how attitudes about envy changed as department stores, mail-order catalogs, magazines, movies, and advertising became more prevalent, and the mass production of imitation luxury goods offered middle- and working-class individuals the opportunity to emulate the upper-class life. Between 1890 and 1910 moralists sought to tame envy and emulation in order to uphold a moral economy and preserve social order. They criticized the liberal-capitalist preoccupation with personal striving and advancement and praised the virtue of contentment. They admonished the bourgeoisie to be satisfied with their circumstances and cease yearning for their neighbors' possessions. After 1910 more secular commentators gained ground, repudiating the doctrine of contentment and rejecting the notion that there were divinely ordained limits on what each class should possess. They encouraged everyone to pursue the objects of desire. Envy was no longer a sin but a valuable economic stimulant."--Jacket.

First Sentence

In 1900, a Ladies' Home Journal columnist inquired, "How much time do we give to studying our fashionable neighbor's hat, or to making cheap, sleazy imitations of her Doucet confections?"

Subjects

Other Editions

• Keeping Up with the Joneses: Envy in American Consumer Society, 1890-1930HardcoverUniversity of Pennsylvania Press2002-11-01
• Keeping up with the JonesesUniversity of Pennsylvania Press2013-01-01
• Keeping up with the JonesesUniversity of Pennsylvania Press2013-01-01