In this Book
University of California Press
- Fabricating Consumers: The Sewing Machine in Modern Japan
- Book
- 2011
- Published by: University of California Press
- Series: Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes
summary
Since its early days of mass production in the 1850s, the sewing machine has been intricately connected with the global development of capitalism. Andrew Gordon traces the machine’s remarkable journey into and throughout Japan, where it not only transformed manners of dress, but also helped change patterns of daily life, class structure, and the role of women. As he explores the selling, buying, and use of the sewing machine in the early to mid-twentieth century, Gordon finds that its history is a lens through which we can examine the modern transformation of daily life in Japan. Both as a tool of production and as an object of consumer desire, the sewing machine is entwined with the emergence and ascendance of the middle class, of the female consumer, and of the professional home manager as defining elements of Japanese modernity.
Table of Contents
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- List of Illustrations
- pp. vii-x
- Introduction
- pp. 1-10
- Part One: Singer in Japan
- 1. Meiji Machines
- pp. 13-29
- 2. The American Way of Selling
- pp. 30-56
- 3. Selling and Consuming Modern Life
- pp. 57-90
- 4. Resisting Yankee Capitalism
- pp. 91-116
- Part Two: Sewing Modernity in War and Peace
- 5. War Machines at Home
- pp. 119-150
- 6. Mechanical Phoenix
- pp. 151-185
- 7. A Nation of Dressmakers
- pp. 186-214
- Conclusion
- pp. 215-224
- Appendix: Some Notes on Time-Use Studies
- pp. 225-228
- Select Bibliography
- pp. 261-270
- Production Notes
- p. 303
Additional Information
ISBN
9780520950313
Related ISBN(s)
9780520267855
MARC Record
OCLC
780449873
Pages
304
Launched on MUSE
2014-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No