A dense, meticulously researched cultural history of Tupperware that attempts to understand the process by which objects of mass consumption are appropriated as meaningful artifacts of everyday life. Clarke begins with the premise that Tupperware has indeed become a cultural symbol for the American way of life (circa 1950) and that worldwide sales of $1.2 billion in 1997 are a strong indicator of the appeal of that symbol. She explores how one object of mass consumption can come to matter for our cultural identities more than others. In the case of Tupperware, the product itself is less important than the method by which it was marketed. When Earl Silas Tupper invented the process for making the product in 1942, he was able to get his wares distributed to department stores nationally, but sales were quite low. Then he adopted the method of Brownie Wise, a middle-aged housewife who had churned out impressive sales of products door-to-door to pay her young son’s medical bills—and the company began to turn a serious profit. With Wise at the head of his newly created “party-sales” department, Tupper was freed to tinker with an endlessly more complicated and decorative product line. In 1954 Wise became the first woman ever to appear on the cover of Business Week. Tupperware and the Tupperware party are often cited as indications of the homogeneity and conspicuous consumption typical of middle-class suburbia in the 1950s, but Clarke seeks to counter the notion of the suburban housewife as a passive consumer by emphasizing the business skills of Wise and many of her sales force. While signifying domesticity, Tupperware simultaneously situated women in the economic sphere. This impressive foray into the material culture of the 1950s complicates many of the truisms concerning American consumerism and suburban living during the period.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-56098-827-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
Bauer offers an eye-opening look into the following question: Could Jewish leaders in America, England, Palestine, and occupied Europe itself have ransomed significant numbers of their brethren? Bauer (Holocaust Studies/Hebrew Univ., Jerusalem; coauthor, A History of the Holocaust, 1982) examines carefully the motives of both Nazi figures (particularly SS head Heinrich Himmler) and various Jewish counterparts. His focus is on four ransom efforts: the Ha'avera (or ``transfer'') agreement by which considerable numbers of German Jews were permitted to emigrate to Palestine between 1933 and 1939 in exchange for large-scale purchases of German goods; the ``Europa Plan,'' advanced by Slovak Jewish leaders in 1943 to halt deporations to the death camps in exchange for a multimillion dollar payment; the famous ``Joel Brand affair'' of 1944, which was (inaccurately) said to have involved a proposed exchange of a million Jews, most in Hungary, for 10,000 trucks; and some far more modest, but also more successful, ransom efforts during the war's final months. After combing German, English, and Hebrew sources, Bauer concludes that Jewish leaders within and outside of occupied Europe achieved ``only partial and marginal successes'' in trying to rescue the ever-shrinking remnant of European Jewry. The Allies, bent on driving the Germans to an unconditional surrender, balked at cooperating with Jewish ransom efforts. For their part, the Nazis were ambivalent, at times committed to murdering every last European Jew, at times willing to make exceptions, particularly when it became clear that they would lose the war. Finally, some of the Jews who transmitted messages to and from the Nazis, and in rare cases dealt directly with them, were what Bauer terms ``shady underworld figures'' trusted neither by ``establishment'' Jewish leaders nor by the Allies. Bauer also looks at several key rescue efforts by non-Jews. Throughout this exemplary work of scholarship and clear historical narrative, Bauer's historical judgments are as balanced and fair-minded as his research is meticulous. A pathbreaking, superb contribution to Holocaust studies.
Pub Date: Nov. 16, 1994
ISBN: 0-300-05913-2
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
A think piece about personal choices that unearths more round holes for square pegs.
One of America’s most influential pollsters carves the present into bite-sized pieces in an attempt to reveal future trends.
Penn gained fame as an advisor to Bill Clinton during his 1996 campaign by identifying blocks of constituents like “Soccer Moms” as potential voters. Here, he and co-author Zalesne expand their trend-spotting to identify 75 burgeoning patterns that they argue are both reflecting and changing our modern world. Each chapter examines a discrete subdivision with themes ranging among politics, lifestyle, religion, money, education, etc. These easily digestible nuggets of scrutiny are fairly straightforward and primarily serve as a kind of pie chart of the human race, dividing Earth’s citizens (primarily Americans, although a single chapter is devoted to international issues) into the cliques and tribes to which they subscribe. Among the emerging classes, the authors find “Cougars” (women who pursue younger men), “New Luddites” (technophobes) and “Car-Buying Soccer Moms,” among dozens of other sub-surface dwellers. The book’s generalizations are sound and cleverly written, despite their brevity, and will undoubtedly appeal to marketing analysts and armchair sociologists, as well as fans of Megatrends and Malcolm Gladwell. Yet the book stands on an unbalanced argument. “Microtrends reflects the human drive toward individuality, while conventional wisdom often seeks to drive society towards the lowest common denominator,” Penn writes in a conclusion, explaining why such movements are important. But by dividing and isolating people into popcorn-sized kernels of experience, their innate individuality is lost in many little crowds instead of one big one. Another troubling factor is that few of the book’s observations feel new. How often have superficial features about stay-at-home workers, caffeine addicts or shy millionaires been recycled on the evening news, let alone the Internet and other mediums? Penn tries to spin the gravity of these ripples. “Movements get started by small groups of dedicated, intensely interested people,” he says. But his observation could apply to anything from the Third Reich to MySpace. More cynical readers may feel like a number.
A think piece about personal choices that unearths more round holes for square pegs.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-446-58096-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Twelve
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
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