University of Chicago Press
Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption
Key Metrics
- Laura J Miller
- University of Chicago Press
- Paperback
- 9780226525914
- 8.87 X 6.21 X 0.69 inches
- 0.98 pounds
- Business & Economics > Commerce
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
In Reluctant Capitalists, Miller looks at a century of book retailing, demonstrating that the independent/chain dynamic is not entirely new. It began one hundred years ago when department stores began selling books, continued through the 1960s with the emergence of national chain stores, and exploded with the formation of superstores in the 1990s. The advent of the Internet has further spurred tremendous changes in how booksellers approach their business. All of these changes have met resistance from book professionals and readers who believe that the book business should somehow be above market forces and instead embrace more noble priorities.
Miller uses interviews with bookstore customers and members of the book industry to explain why books evoke such distinct and heated reactions. She reveals why customers have such fierce loyalty to certain bookstores and why they identify so strongly with different types of books. In the process, she also teases out the meanings of retailing and consumption in American culture at large, underscoring her point that any type of consumer behavior is inevitably political, with consequences for communities as well as commercial institutions.
Author Bio
Laura J. Miller is Professor and Chair of Sociology. She came to Brandeis in 2002, having previously taught at the University of Western Ontario and Vassar College. Professor Miller teaches courses in the sociology of culture, the mass media, food studies, and urban sociology
Her research is centered on understanding the interaction between cultural and economic processes. This interest has led to studies that examine information, media, and lifestyle industries, the contributions of such industries to consumer culture, and the role of commercial institutions in community life and social change. Her latest book, Building Nature's Market: The Business and Politics of Natural Foods, published in Fall 2017, examines the relationship between the health/natural foods industry and natural foods as a social and cultural movement.
Her 2006 book, Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption, was on book marketing and retailing in the twentieth century, with a focus on the growth of large, corporate-owned chain bookstores.
Miller's current research project examines the publishing history of vegetarian cookbooks in the United States in order to trace changing meanings attached to a vegetarian way of life and the advocacy of vegetarianism.
Education
- University of California, San Diego, Ph.D.
University of California, San Diego, M.A.
University of California, Berkeley, M.S.
University of California, Berkeley, B.A.
Source: Brandeis University
Videos
No Videos
Community reviews
Write a ReviewNo Community reviews