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The Consumer Society Reader, edited by Juliet B. Schor and Douglas B. Holt. New York: New Press, 2000. 502 pp. $40.00 cloth. ISBN: 1-56584-532-3. $22.95 paper. ISBN: 1-- 56584-598-6.
This anthology is a welcome addition to the burgeoning field of the sociology of consumption. Its main utility will be as the core text in courses devoted to that subject (at least until we begin to see true textbooks in the sociology of consumption with an American focus to parallel those already available elsewhere, primarily Great Britain). It could also be used as a secondary text in an array of other courses (e.g., economic sociology, or the sociology of culture). Beyond that, it would serve as a useful introduction to the field for those professional sociologists with little or no familiarity with it.
The great strength of this anthology is the diversity of its twenty-eight entries divided among seven broad categories. There are theoretical statements, some empirical research, some highly descriptive texts, several popular pieces, and a number of opinion statements on the state of consumption and what, if anything, ought to be done about its excesses. There are many works that are very familiar, even to one with only a passing familiarity with the consumption area, and there are several that were unknown...