A nation of consumers: Mass consumption, middle class standards of living, and American national identity, 1910-1950

During the first half of the twentieth century the United States became a fundamentally middle-class culture. I examine family budgets, patterns of mass consumption, the mechanisms of consumer credit, and the discourse of social scientists studying consumer behavior, to describe the democratization of middle-class status through mass consumption of domestic comfort and leisure. Between 1910 and 1950, new modes of non-subsistence consumption became the core of a middle-class culture that provided a powerful basis for national identity. As a majority of American families moved from lifestyles circumscribed by the physical requirements of subsistence, to lifestyles characterized by greater expenditures on durable goods and leisure activities, middle-class status became available to unprecedented numbers of people through their roles as consumers. An ideology took root in American culture defining mass consumption as social progress, and legitimating the universal pursuit of domestic comfort and leisure. The economic, ideological, and behavioral dynamics of mass consumption generated compelling reasons for Americans to think of the U.S. as a nation of consumers.; Despite the momentum of mass culture, American society was not overwhelmed by homogeneity. The widespread achievement of new consumption norms raised the ominous specter of cultural degeneration, and provoked a sociological critique of conformity that became a staple of public discourse in the 1950s. Although this critique contained much insight, it replicated and popularized the tendency of previous generations of consumption researchers to dismiss signs of cultural diversity. Surveys, community studies, and other social science research demonstrate the general trends, but they also reveal considerable unevenness in consumption patterns. Income and place of residence structured access to new durable goods and leisure experiences; ethnicity, race, gender, and life-cycle stage could work to inhibit or mediate people's participation in the emerging cultural mainstream. Traditional values, like purchasing life insurance, group-based social activities, and non-commercialized leisure, remained resilient across a broad spectrum of the population. Even though middle-class living standards and commercialized culture were the norm, and greatly expanded access to goods blurred lines of social difference, social life continued to display a dynamic tension between diversity and homogeneity, old customs and new habits.