Abstract

This article examines debates about the merits of a boycott of Japanese products, especially silk, in the late 1930s as a lens through which to examine the relationship between consumer activism and consumer society in the United States. It argues that both supporters and opponents of the silk boycott, in promoting a politics that was both virtuous and pleasurable, marked a departure from the dominant tradition of consumer activism before and since, which has defined virtue and fashion as opposing forces. As the article shows, the silk boycotters (and their opponents) took fashion and pleasure seriously and embedded their campaigns in popular culture.

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