Buying happiness: English Canadian intellectuals and the development of Canadian consumer culture

This dissertation explores intellectual responses to changing patterns of consumption during the period 1890 to 1960.;Consumer society, this dissertation proposes, involved a particular understanding of society as well as a particular way of life. Watching Canada change through the eyes of the intellectual community, it is possible to see something new emerge, something which comes over time to be conceptualized as a consumer society. At the same time, this study presents intellectual practice as an active as well as a contemplative exercise. By engaging with society, that is by representing, measuring, categorizing and making policies to direct the changing purchasing practices of Canadians, the intellectual community helped to shape a culture of consumption.;New ways of thinking about consumption emerged in response to rising abundance and increasing choice; however, certain themes persisted even as Canada changed. Criticism of consumerism took shape around three areas of concerns: the undermining of producer values, escalations in inequality and social instability, and the degrading effects of mass culture. A second discourse emphasized the utopian potential of increased consumption, which, many hoped, would allow Canadians to redirect their efforts towards personal, spiritual or cultural improvement. The creation of a national culture rooted in pre-modern visions of the land and the folk was conceived as a unifying, ennobling alternative to mass culture. The desire to divert consumer spending to proper channels saw the role of intellectual and cultural elites shift from the provision of moral guidance to the provision of expertise. Over time, entitlement to basic consumer goods and services was recognized as a right of citizenship. Crises that threatened consumer well-being (inflation, depression and war) prompted the expansion of the state's power to shape the economy.