Consuming Modernity: Gendered Behaviour and Consumerism before the Baby Boom ed. by Cheryl Krasnick Warsh and Dan Malleck (review)

In 1927, four Calgary nurses-in-training were fired from their jobs. The cause of their dismissal? They showed too much neck. The women had insisted on embracing the latest in modern hairstyles – the bob – a fashion statement, Jane Nicholas explains in this volume, that proved too unsettling for their superiors. Newspapers of the time confirm that this was not the first time that Canadian nurses had seen their employment terminated for such a brazen act of modern fashion (193). Moreover, events in Calgary reflected transnational trends: as Susanne Einei-gel notes in her contribution to this collection, the 1920s witnessed ardent Roman Catholics in Mexico City similarly exercised about the dangers of bobbed hair, which, in their view, combined with “knee-length skirts” and “transparent stockings” to turn “women’s bodies into modern spectacles” (210). Such developments nicely sum up many of the themes that structure this fascinating collection of essays. The Calgary nurses, undoubtedly influenced by advertising, the cinema, and mass-circulation magazines, but active agents in their own right, purchased a service that transformed their appearance. In doing so, they embraced interwar fashion trends that were facilitated by, and contributed to, new gender ideals. Their supervisors responded harshly, likely in an attempt to preserve a cultural system that faced challenges on multiple fronts. The actions of both groups took place in a very specific location but reflected transnational trends – and tensions – concerning gender identity and contested responses to the alluring possibilities and alarming characteristics of modern life.

In Consuming Modernity, the editors offer us thirteen intriguing case studies that document the complex ways in which people negotiated modernity and consumer culture, not just in Canada but in the United States, Britain, Mexico, Argentina, and Germany as well. The focus is squarely on the interwar period, and one of the strengths of the collection is the very fact that in moving from chapter to chapter one can see common developments shaping very different parts of the world in the aftermath of the Great War and right through the Great Depression. While the contributors are careful to document local particularities, the book successfully highlights the fact that the people in these places experienced a broad transformation in the way in which they were expected to dress, shop, clean their counters, and decorate their faces. In short, modernity and consumerism profoundly shaped both intimate and quotidian aspects of their lives. While some edited collections sport strained attempts by their contributors to offer links to other chapters in the volume, here such references really do help the reader to see important connections across time and, to a greater extent, place.

Perhaps reflecting the general state of the literature, the chapters focus more on female consumers (especially young women) than male. A number of contributors fruitfully highlight the connections between consumption, modernity, and medical discourses of the period. Some focus on political developments, such as Bettina Liverant’s insightful re-articulation of the 1935 Canadian federal election as a contest defined largely by the politics of consumption. Many more trace the advertising and acquisition of particular commodities. For example, Marilyn Morgan offers a fascinating history of the swimsuit, while Devon Hansen Atchison provides an enlightening study of consumers’ desire for (slightly) darker skin by documenting the growing popularity of suntanning in the 1920s. Beyond swimwear and suntan products, readers can learn a great deal here about cosmetics, popular fiction, the cinema, and the many uses of Lysol. Indeed, the range of topics itself ensures that the book deserves a wide readership.

Overall, this collection offers a lively and detailed sense of what was at stake for Canadians and their counterparts elsewhere during the interwar period as they embraced, confronted, and negotiated the emerging consumer culture. The book’s subtitle emphasizes not only the contributors’ focus on gender but also the fact that the chapters...