The Anxieties of Affluence: Critiques of American Consumer Culture, 1939-1979

Index

323 Index abortion, 198 abundance. See affluence Adbusters, 252 Adorno, Theodor, 10, 94 advertising: agrarians and, 85; ambivalence toward , 120; for automobiles, 169, 170, 268n9; and counterculture, 271n28; and dependence effect, 105; and environmental degradation, 157, 191; and hedonism, 208; Katona and, 74; and mallcondo commercialism, 254; negative effects of, 91, 109–11; Packard and, 119–20; and postwar consumption, 15, 45–46, 62, 104; Potter and, 80, 91; power of, 111; and promotion of democratic capitalism, 285n45; psychology applied to, 53–55; and racism, 178; and sexuality, 169; and status symbols, 112; and technological advances, 114; and wants creation , 215; and wasteful consumption, 114; and women’s consumption, 57–58, 74, 164–65, 268n9 Advertising Council, 285n45 affluence: African Americans and, 180–82, 184– 85, 300n30; and alienation, 133; ambiguities of, 247–48; and American exceptionalism, 89– 91, 95–96; and consumer activism, 182; and consumer aspirations, 73; controversy over, 1– 2, 18–19; cost of, 14, 79, 99, 103–4, 115–16; democracy and, 90, 286n1; as disease, 253, 254; émigré intellectuals and, 77–78; end of (1970s), 18, 203–6; as environmental threat, 153–54, 157–59; excesses of, as political issue, 129–30; global implications of, 184, 187–88, 197–98, 201; myth of, 127–28, 160; and narcissism, 215; 9/11 and, 19, 256; postmoralist celebrations of, 19, 254–56; during postwar period,49– 51; poverty of, 141, 160–61; private, vs. public poverty, 72, 103–6, 117, 169; and quality of life, 290n5; and religion, 233; sensible, 132; as social problem, 14, 128; social status and, 96; women and, 122–27 Affluent Society, The (Galbraith): criticism of, 71, 98; on economic effects of consumption, 286n4; Harrington and, 149; influence of, 4, 106–7, 153, 212; international contexts ignored in, 188; poverty minimized in, 128, 145; on public poverty vs. private wealth, 14dash 15, 103–6 “Affluenza” (TV program), 252, 253 Afghanistan, Soviet invasion of, 240 African Americans: and affluence, 180–82, 184– 85, 300n30; alliance with liberals, 185; and consumer activism, 165–66, 185–86, 300n37; and consumer culture, 178–79, 221, 298n26; emergence of, as writers, 2; and entitlements, 209; Friedan and, 125; in How America Lives, 23–24; and inequality, 49; middle class, 163, 180–82; neglected in social criticism, 128; Potter and, 86–88; and poverty, 147, 184–85, 246; resistance to King’s moralism, 300n37; stereotypes of, 184; unemployment among, 204; Vietnam conflict and, 184 Age of Reform, The (Hofstadter), 94 Agnew, Jean-Christophe, 20–21 Agony of the American Left, The (Lasch), 212 agrarianism, 85, 88, 133 324 Index Aichhorn, August, 266n6 alcohol consumption, moralism and, 2 alienation, 99, 133, 189, 215, 285n47 Allen, Henry, 216 Allen, Maryon, 246 American Automobile Association, 171 “American Automobile: Designed for Death?” (Nader), 168 American Capitalism (Galbraith), 103 American dream, 62 American exceptionalism: affluence and, 89–91, 95–96; Katona and, 76–77; moral basis for, 88– 89 American Historical Association, 98 American Liberals and the Russian Revolution (Lasch), 212 American Magazine, 108–9 American national character, 10, 89–90; regional distinctiveness and, 96; wasteful consumption and, 115–16. See also American exceptionalism American Psychological Association, 67 American Way of Death, The (Mitford), 173 American way of life: consumer culture and, 37, 77–78; as prevention of totalitarianism, 12. See also democratic capitalism “And Sudden Death” (Furnas), 171 Animal Farm (Orwell), 110 animal rights activism, 252 Anthropological Essays (Lewis), 143 anthropology, postmoralism and, 3 anti-Semitism, 136 appliances, and women’s consumption, 56–58, 116, 283n30 Arendt, Hannah, 10 Aronowitz, Stanley, 290–91n12 Aspirations and Affluence (Katona), 70–71 atomic bomb, 152–53, 269n12 Auden, W. H., 148 Audobon Society, 156 Aunt Jemima (advertising figure), 178 automation, 146 automobiles: advertisements for, 169, 170, 268n9; and consumer activism, 200; and consumer culture , 169; as environmental threat, 189, 198; Nader and safety of, 168–71; ownership of, in U.S., 163 autonomy, personal, 125–26 baby boom generation, 234 Background and Development of Marxian Socialism in the United States (Bell), 206–7 Ball, William Watts, 80 banking system, shoring up of, 23 Barton, Bruce, 43 Bauer, Raymond A., 300n37 BBC, 86 Beat Generation, 134 Begin, Menachem, 226 Bellah, Melanie, 309n46 Bellah, Robert N.: background/career of, 218–20; Carter and, 7, 224, 227, 228, 233, 235–37, 239, 241, 310n3; and counterculture, 309n44; and end of affluence, 18; influence of, 224, 244; on religion and public good, 220–23; and selfindulgence vs. community...