Shop 'til You Drop

Consumer Behavior and American Culture

By (author) Arthur Asa Berger

Not available to order

Publication date:

26 November 2004

Length of book:

152 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781461666226

Are Americans obsessed with shopping? Shop 'til You Drop is a lively look at our consumer culture and its role in our everyday lives and society. Is the United States different from other first-world nations in the amount of time we spend shopping or in our attitudes toward consumption? Are we one unified consumer culture or are several cultures operating and battling against one another? Arthur Asa Berger uncovers the answers to these and other questions, considering the sacred roots of consumer culture, the demographics of consumption, theories about competing cultures, and the semiotics of shopping. Accessibly written and entertaining, Shop 'til You Drop is ideal for courses in cultural studies, advertising, and American studies, as well as for anyone curious about our nation's drive to consume.
In Shop 'til You Drop, Arthur Asa Berger has done it again. With a sense of humor and sagacious aplomb that is always just below the surface, he is nevertheless able to say profound and insightful things that make us reflect on things as they are. I know of no other work in the field of cultural studies that provides such a penetrating analysis of the roots of consumerism, unraveling its mythic-religious roots, its meaning structures, and its many ritualistic aspects. Berger's book has finally explained to me why shopping, in and of itself, holds such enormous appeal. It is one of those 'good reads' that entertains at the same time that it enlightens.