Reluctant Capitalists

by Miller, Laura J., M.D.

• ISBN13: 9780226525907
• ISBN10: 0226525902
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Over the past half-century, bookselling, like many retail industries, has evolved from an arena dominated by independent bookstores to one in which chain stores have significant market share. Yet unlike other retail industries, bookselling, many people believe, should be "above" questions of profit. In Reluctant Capitalists, Laura J. Miller investigates what drives this belief and how it is affected by the changing retail environment. Miller teases out the meanings of retailing and consumption in American culture at large, underscoring her point that any type of consumer behavior is inevitably political, with consequences for communities as well as commercial institutions. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Laura J. Miller is assistant professor of sociology at Brandeis University.

 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
CHAPTER 1 Commercial Culture and Its Discontents	1	(22)
CHAPTER 2 From Dry Goods Merchant to Internet Mogul: Bookselling through American History	23	(32)
CHAPTER 3 Providing for the Sovereign Consumer: Selecting and Recommending Books	55	(32)
CHAPTER 4 Designing the Bookstore for the Standardized Consumer	87	(30)
CHAPTER 5 Serving the Entertained Consumer: The Multifunction Bookstore	117	(24)
CHAPTER 6 Bargaining with the Rational Consumer: Selling the Low-Cost Book	141	(20)
CHAPTER 7 The Revolt of the Retailers: Independent Bookseller Activism	161	(36)
CHAPTER 8 Pursuing the Citizen-Consumer: Consumption as Politics	197	(34)
Appendix: Ownership Histories of Major American Chain Bookstores	231	(6)
Notes	237	(46)
Bibliography	283	(16)
Index	299