Packaged Pleasures

Packaged Pleasures
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 359
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226121277
ISBN-13 : 0226121275
Rating : 4/5 (77 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Packaged Pleasures by : Gary S. Cross

Download or read book Packaged Pleasures written by Gary S. Cross and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the candy bar to the cigarette, records to roller coasters, a technological revolution during the last quarter of the nineteenth century precipitated a colossal shift in human consumption and sensual experience. Food, drink, and many other consumer goods came to be mass-produced, bottled, canned, condensed, and distilled, unleashing new and intensified surges of pleasure, delight, thrill—and addiction. In Packaged Pleasures, Gary S. Cross and Robert N. Proctor delve into an uncharted chapter of American history, shedding new light on the origins of modern consumer culture and how technologies have transformed human sensory experience. In the space of only a few decades, junk foods, cigarettes, movies, recorded sound, and thrill rides brought about a revolution in what it means to taste, smell, see, hear, and touch. New techniques of boxing, labeling, and tubing gave consumers virtually unlimited access to pleasures they could simply unwrap and enjoy. Manufacturers generated a seemingly endless stream of sugar-filled, high-fat foods that were delicious but detrimental to health. Mechanically rolled cigarettes entered the market and quickly addicted millions. And many other packaged pleasures dulled or displaced natural and social delights. Yet many of these same new technologies also offered convenient and effective medicines, unprecedented opportunities to enjoy music and the visual arts, and more hygienic, varied, and nutritious food and drink. For better or for worse, sensation became mechanized, commercialized, and, to a large extent, democratized by being made cheap and accessible. Cross and Proctor have delivered an ingeniously constructed history of consumerism and consumer technology that will make us all rethink some of our favorite things.


Packaged Pleasures Related Books

Packaged Pleasures
Language: en
Pages: 359
Authors: Gary S. Cross
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-09-30 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the candy bar to the cigarette, records to roller coasters, a technological revolution during the last quarter of the nineteenth century precipitated a col
Packaged Pleasures
Language: en
Pages: 359
Authors: Gary S. Cross
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-09-30 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the candy bar to the cigarette, records to roller coasters, a technological revolution during the last quarter of the nineteenth century precipitated a col
The Age of Addiction
Language: en
Pages: 312
Authors: David T. Courtwright
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-05-06 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“A fascinating history of corporate America’s efforts to shape our habits and desires.” —Sean Illing, Vox “[A] compulsively readable book about bad ha
The Existential Pleasures of Engineering
Language: en
Pages: 271
Authors: Samuel C. Florman
Categories: Technology & Engineering
Type: BOOK - Published: 1996-02-15 - Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Humans have always sought to change their environment--building houses, monuments, temples, and roads. In the process, they have remade the fabric of the world
Simple Pleasures
Language: en
Pages: 35
Authors:
Categories: Self-Help
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-05-31 - Publisher: Random House

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

What are the little things that make life worth living? A walk in the countryside, perhaps; a log fire; a letter from a friend. In Simple Pleasures, some of the