TY - GEN T1 - Middle class union : organizing the "consuming public" in post-World War I America A1 - Robbins, Mark W. LA - English PP - Ann Arbor PB - University of Michigan Press YR - 2017 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_eba_ocn988892016 AB - Middle Class Union" argues that the period following World War I was a pivotal moment in the development of middle-class consumer politics in the 20th century. At this time, middle-class Americans politically mobilized to define for society what was fair in the growing consumer marketplace. They projected themselves as guardians of the producerist values of hard work, honesty, and thrift, and called for greater adherence to them among the working and elite classes. In this era and in later periods, they flexed their muscles as consumers, and claimed to defend the values of the nation. Combining social history with interdisciplinary approaches to the study of consumption and symbolic space, Middle Class Union illustrates how acts of consumption, representations of the middle class in literary, journalistic, and artistic discourses, and ground-level organizing combined to enable white-collar activists to establish themselves as both the middle class and the backbone of the nation. This book contributes to labor history by examining the nexus of class and consumption to show how many white-collar workers drew on their consumer identity to express an anti-labor politics, later facilitating the struggles of unions throughout the post-World War I years. It also contributes to political history by emphasizing how these middle-class activists laid important groundwork for both 1920s business conservatism and New Deal liberalism. They exerted their political influence well before the post-World War II period, when a self-interested and powerful middle-class consumer identity is more widely acknowledged to have taken hold. CN - HC110.C6 SN - 9780472122790 SN - 0472122797 SN - 9780472130337 SN - 0472130331 SN - 9780472130337 (hardcover : alk. paper) KW - Consumers : United States : History : 20th century. KW - Consumers' leagues : United States : History : 20th century. KW - Consumer cooperatives : United States : History : 20th century. KW - Middle class : United States : History : 20th century. KW - United States : Economic conditions : 1918-1945. KW - Consommateurs : États-Unis : Histoire : 20e siècle. KW - Consommateurs : États-Unis : Associations : Histoire : 20e siècle. KW - Coopératives de consommation : États-Unis : Histoire : 20e siècle. KW - Classes moyennes : États-Unis : Histoire : 20e siècle. KW - États-Unis : Conditions économiques : 1918-1945. KW - HISTORY : General. KW - Consumer cooperatives KW - Consumers KW - Consumers' leagues KW - Economic history KW - Middle class KW - United States KW - 1900-1999 KW - History ER -