Packaged Pleasures

Packaged Pleasures
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 359
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226147383
ISBN-13 : 022614738X
Rating : 4/5 (38X Downloads)

Book Synopsis Packaged Pleasures by : Gary S. Cross

Download or read book Packaged Pleasures written by Gary S. Cross and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the candy bar to the cigarette, records to roller coasters, a technological revolution during the last quarter of the nineteenth century precipitated a colossal shift in human consumption and sensual experience. Food, drink, and many other consumer goods came to be mass-produced, bottled, canned, condensed, and distilled, unleashing new and intensified surges of pleasure, delight, thrill—and addiction. In Packaged Pleasures, Gary S. Cross and Robert N. Proctor delve into an uncharted chapter of American history, shedding new light on the origins of modern consumer culture and how technologies have transformed human sensory experience. In the space of only a few decades, junk foods, cigarettes, movies, recorded sound, and thrill rides brought about a revolution in what it means to taste, smell, see, hear, and touch. New techniques of boxing, labeling, and tubing gave consumers virtually unlimited access to pleasures they could simply unwrap and enjoy. Manufacturers generated a seemingly endless stream of sugar-filled, high-fat foods that were delicious but detrimental to health. Mechanically rolled cigarettes entered the market and quickly addicted millions. And many other packaged pleasures dulled or displaced natural and social delights. Yet many of these same new technologies also offered convenient and effective medicines, unprecedented opportunities to enjoy music and the visual arts, and more hygienic, varied, and nutritious food and drink. For better or for worse, sensation became mechanized, commercialized, and, to a large extent, democratized by being made cheap and accessible. Cross and Proctor have delivered an ingeniously constructed history of consumerism and consumer technology that will make us all rethink some of our favorite things.


Packaged Pleasures Related Books

Packaged Pleasures
Language: en
Pages: 359
Authors: Gary S. Cross
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-09-30 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

GET EBOOK

From the candy bar to the cigarette, records to roller coasters, a technological revolution during the last quarter of the nineteenth century precipitated a col
Packaged Pleasures
Language: en
Pages: 359
Authors: Gary S. Cross
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-09-30 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

GET EBOOK

From the candy bar to the cigarette, records to roller coasters, a technological revolution during the last quarter of the nineteenth century precipitated a col
Guilty Pleasures
Language: en
Pages: 405
Authors: Laurell K. Hamilton
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2002-09-24 - Publisher: Penguin

GET EBOOK

Meet Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, in the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that “blends the genres of romance, horror and adventure with
The Tiny Book of Tiny Pleasures
Language: en
Pages: 401
Authors: Irene Smit
Categories: Body, Mind & Spirit
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-04-04 - Publisher: Workman Publishing Company

GET EBOOK

A perfect gift book filled with whimsical, colorful illustrations, short lists, cheerful prompts, recipes, and fun facts, The Tiny Book of Tiny Pleasures is the
Live, Die, Buy, Eat
Language: en
Pages: 279
Authors: Kristian Bjørkdahl
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-11-22 - Publisher: Taylor & Francis

GET EBOOK

Live, Die, Buy, Eat. These words represent a chain of events which today is disconnected. In the past few years, controversies around meat have arisen around in