Adapting to Abundance: Mass Consumption, and the Search for American Identity (review)

106 SHOFAR Fall 1992 Vol. 11, No. 1 BOOK REVIEWS Adapting to Abundance: Mass Consumption, and the Search for' American Identity, byAndrewR. Heinze. NewYork: Columbia University Press, 1990. 276 pp. In past histories, Jewish immigrants have been described in many ways-as workers, intellectuals, joiners of organizations, hungry for education, upwardly mobile, and so forth. This intriguing study, however, considers Jewish immigrants as consumers and traces their adaptation to mass consumption as an important aspect of their process ofAmericanization . Inspired by David Potter's 1954 study, People of Plenty: Economic Abundance and the American Character, Heinze attempts to demonstrate the link between consumption-the uses of abundance-and the forging of a new American identity by these immigrants and their children. Heinze begins by tracing the enormous explosion of consumer goods in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Whatever luxuries existed in Eastern EuropeanJewish homes, he contends, were connected with religious observance, to honor the Sabbath and holidays. In America, however, the products of abundance were secular, and all people, regardless of class, could aspire to such extravagances as fine clothing, a vacation in the country, a parlor or a piano for the children. The achievement of these objectives would constitute the achievement of an immigrant's version of the American dream. I was reminded, when reading this, of my own interview with an elderly woman who had come to this country young and never lost her thick accent. She recalled with great delight that she had quickly become knowledgeable about the latest fashions, and in her fine clothing, everyone took her for "an American girl." Advertisers were quick to exploit this desire to purchase "American" products. Heinze shows the quick growth of advertising in the Yiddish press and the exaltation of brand-name foods and consumer goods. Here he answers an obvious question about how the desire to consume differentiated Jews from other immigrants: the Italian or German press recorded no such rapid rise in advertising, so one can assume that members of these ethnic groups were not considered as great a potential market. But for Jewish immigrants, Heinze theorizes, consumption was not simply an end in itself, but rather a means of cultural transformation. As Book Reviews 107 work, rather than religious holidays, became the organizing principle of time, advertisements encouraged them to make a purchase for themselves or as a gift to "honor" a holiday. Chanukah, a minor holiday in Eastern Europe, became a gift-giving occasion in this country to compete with American Christmas customs. If Christmas were celebrated in March, Heinze observes, Purim would have become the great gift-giving opportunity . The Sabbath became a major shopping day, with 60 percent of the shops on the Lower East Side open on Saturdays. In a final section, Heinze shows how the activities ofJewish men in commerce and marketing gave wide latitude to the drive for integration into American society, and also provided a way to have a significant influence on the urban lifestyle. The department store, the development and mass marketing of motion pictures, including the creation of "picture palaces," were new ways to sell what had become essential luxuries of city life. The book is not without flaws. First, although Heinze observes that Jewish immigrant women "served as a catalyst for the adaptation of newcomers to the American standard of living" (p. 105), the argument could have benefited from a gendered analysis of consumption. Much of what women had to do in the home wa.s consistent with both traditional religious values and Americanization. This might have emerged with more clarity had women's own voices been heard rather than men describing what they saw as women's roles. Second, the provocative section on the uses of consumption as a bridge between old and new world cultures paralleling the increasing secularization ofJewish immigrant society is not entirely convincing. One reason is that the same kind of secularization, with less consumerism, was taking place at the same time in the cities of Eastern Europe: for another, any woman who has prepared for a traditional Passover must laugh at Heinze's use as evidence of a quotation from a man who complains...