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book: Capitalism and the Senses
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Capitalism and the Senses

  • Edited by: and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2023

About this book

Capitalism and the Senses is the first edited volume to explore how the forces of capitalism are entangled with everyday sensory experience. If the senses have a history, as Karl Marx wrote, then that history is inseparable from the development of capitalism, which has both taken advantage of the senses and influenced how sensory experience has changed over time.

This pioneering collection shows how seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching have both shaped and been shaped by commercial interests from the turn of the twentieth century to our own time. From the manipulation of taste and texture in the food industry to the careful engineering of the feel of artificial fabrics, capitalist enterprises have worked to commodify the senses in a wide variety of ways. Drawing on history, anthropology, geography, and other fields, the volume’s essays analyze not only where this effort has succeeded but also where the senses have resisted control and the logic of markets. The result is an innovative ensemble that demonstrates how the drive to exploit sensorial experience for profit became a defining feature of capitalist modernity and establishes the senses as an important dimension of the history of capitalism.

Contributors: Nicholas Anderman, Regina Lee Blaszczyk, Jessica P. Clark, Ai Hisano, Lisa Jacobson, Sven Kube, Grace Lees-Maffei, Ingemar Pettersson, David Suisman, Ana María Ulloa, Nicole Welk-Joerger.

Author / Editor information

Regina Lee Blaszczyk is Professor of Business History and Leadership Chair in the History of Business and Society at the University of Leeds.

David Suisman is Associate Professor of History at the University of Delaware.

Reviews

"Industrial capitalism was bent on disciplining the senses in the interests of production. Consumer capitalism seeks to entice the senses to stimulate consumption. The tale of capitalism’s shifting investments in the senses needs telling, and this book does so piercingly, brilliantly, sumptuously." --- "[W]ell-researched and very thought provoking...[T]he value of the essays in Capitalism and the Senses lies partly in their informative historical narratives but, more importantly, in their capacity to make readers think in new ways about marketing and consumption, past and present. The commercialization of taste, sound, smell, and touch has had consequences for consumer culture and for society at large. The marketing of the senses, and how these practices intersect with gender, class, and race, or affect human and natural environments, should provide ample opportunities for further macromarketing research." --- "[A]n extremely impressive collection. . . . [V]irtually nothing has been written on political economies of the senses, and the editors of this collection should be commended for tackling it." --- "Capitalism and the Senses offers many inventive approaches to writing business history. Together, its chapters reveal that capitalism is neither inevitable nor imperceptible, that it relies on skillful exploitation of the senses, and that the resulting sensory stimuli have had transformative effects on how we experience daily life. Shifting focus from abstract market forces to embodied sensations and their calculated commercialization, the book offers much for business historians to sink their teeth into."

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Series editor’s foreword

    vii
    Roger Horowitz
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    Introduction

    1
    Regina Lee Blaszczyk and David Suisman
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  • PART I Framing Capitalism and the Senses
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    Chapter 1 “Use Not Perfumery to Flavor Soup” The Science of the Senses in Aesthetic Capitalism

    19
    Ai Hisano
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    Chapter 2 Chasing Flavor: Sensory Science and the Economy

    36
    Ingemar Pettersson
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    Chapter 3 Richer Sounds: Capitalism, Musical Instruments, and the Cold War Sonic Divide

    53
    Sven Kube
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  • PART II Resisting Rationalization
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    Chapter 4 Altered States and Gustatory Taste: The Sensory Synergies of Whiskey Marketing in the Mid-Twentieth- Century United States

    73
    Lisa Jacobson
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    Chapter 5 The Psychophysics of Taste and Smell: From Experimental Science to Commercial Tool

    95
    Ana María Ulloa
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    Chapter 6 Sky’s the Limit: Capitalism, the Senses, and the Failure of Commercial Supersonic Aviation in the United States

    111
    David Suisman
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    Chapter 7 Sounding Maritime Metal: On Weathering Steel and Listening to Capitalism at Sea

    128
    Nicholas Anderman
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  • PART III Production
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    Chapter 8 Making Human Trash Tasty: A History of Sweet Cattle Feed in the Progressive Era

    145
    Nicole Welk-Joerger
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    Chapter 9 Getting a Handle on It: Thomas Lamb, Mass Production, and Touch in Design History

    162
    Grace Lees-Maffei
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  • PART IV Marketplace
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    Chapter 10 Fragrance and Fair Women: Perfumers and Consumers in Modern London

    183
    Jessica P. Clark
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    Chapter 11 Sold on Softness: DuPont Synthetics and Sensory Experience

    203
    Regina Lee Blaszczyk
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    Chapter 12 Feminine Touches: The Sensory World of Lady Hilton

    226
    Megan J. Elias
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    Notes

    245
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    Contributors

    287
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    Index

    291
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
June 30, 2023
eBook ISBN:
9781512824216
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.9783/9781512824216
eBook ISBN: 9781512824216
Keywords for this book
history; capitalism; senses; business; sensory; consumers; marketing; Cold War; twentieth century; consumer capitalism; consumption; sensory indulgence; instant gratification; impulse buying; self-fashioning; commodities; aesthetics; experience; United States; Hagley
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