A scholar's thought-provoking and persuasively documented challenge to the utilitarian assumption that money is simply a fungible, impersonal medium of exchange. Zelizer (Sociology/Princeton) draws on a wealth of unconventional sources (etiquette guides, immigrants' handbooks, newspapers, vaudeville routines, women's magazines) to show that money is a many-splendored instrument with both cultural and economic significance. While she gathers her evidence mainly from an American era that began with the post-Civil War expansion and ended during the Depression, the author leaves little doubt that her findings apply equally to other times and places. In aid of her thesis that commercial enterprises and government agencies as well as individuals distinguish among forms of legal tender, she first examines how money was ``earmarked'' (i.e., allocated) in domestic households at a time when the US was becoming a consumer-oriented society and comparatively few women worked for wages. Moving on to optional largesse (including tips and bonuses), Zelizer points out that it matters how gifts of money are spent; the recipient of a birthday check, she observes, is not expected to buy groceries with it. Covered as well are the running battles that pitted welfare authorities against the poor, who found ways to subvert bureaucratic restrictions designed to keep them from apportioning relief funds for burial plots, fraternal organizations, or other putatively inappropriate expenditures. While the Social Security Act of 1935 advanced the monetization of public-assistance programs, the author notes, the contest for control of domestic budgets continued unabated. In evaluating this and allied aspects of money's infinite variety as exemplified by such currency equivalents as casino chips, food stamps, and tokens (plus the divergences between an allowance and a salary, honorariums, and related anomalies), Zelizer concludes that multiple monies are a central feature of advanced capitalist economies. An illuminating, on-the-money audit of a protean commodity that's largely taken for granted.
Pub Date: June 22, 1994
ISBN: 0-465-07891-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1994
Here's the argument from media expert Turow (Annenberg School of Communications/Univ. of Penn.): The current price of targeting advertising to highly defined market segments is dividing the country into increasingly insular groups of people who care only about others like themselves. Turow (Playing Doctor: Television, Storytelling, and Medical Power, 1989) shows how advertising has evolved from a force ``making a homogenous people out of a nation of immigrants,'' as one ad-agency president claimed in the 1920s, to an industry concerned only with making the most money in the most cost- effective manner—by targeting those most likely to purchase the product or service in question. Advertising in the 1950s and early '60s could be generalized as a broad-based pitch to the American people via dominant network television, major radio stations, and mainstream magazines. Since then, cable television has separated the TV audience into specialized viewing segments. Magazines preceded cable television in this regard. Mass-market media are now most useful in promoting products with wide appeal, such as fast food, soft drinks, and sneakers. Another, rather perverse use of mass marketing was employed recently by the Lamborghini automobile company. They advertised in large-circulation US magazines to let the majority of Americans know that their car was prohibitively expensive. This exclusivity would make the car more desirable to the 100 US buyers the company hoped ultimately to reach. Stories such as these keep one entertained throughout this brief, informative book. But Turow, after carefully setting up the facts in his case against the ad industry, never delivers the final blow. He suggests that in many instances advertisers were reacting to societal changes, not necessarily creating them. And he isn't convincing on the gravity of the implied loss of national community resulting from the lack of a shared ad culture. Will society really be worse off if we can't all sing the Oscar Mayer wiener song together? An intriguing book if you ignore its dramatic, somewhat unsubstantiated premise.
Pub Date: March 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-226-81749-0
Page Count: 257
Publisher: Univ. of Chicago
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
American Heritage columnist Gordon (The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street, 1988) deserves credit for attempting a brief history of the national debt aimed at a wide audience, but the result is somewhat disappointing. Gordon argues that debt can be a valuable economic and political tool when used consciously and wisely, as Alexander Hamilton attempted to do, but poses a real threat when it results from an unwillingness to make difficult decisions, as with the current federal deficit. This distinction loses its sharpness when applied to more complicated events, such as the funding of the Civil War and Roosevelt's policies in the 1930s, and is lost from sight during the discussion of Andrew Mellon's supply-side economics of the 1920s. But this theory nevertheless serves to bracket a quick survey of American public finance. Unfortunately, at times Gordon's tendency to skim the surface of selected events and rely on conventional platitudes results in a rather skewed account. It is impossible, for example, to understand why early proponents of the income tax were intent on soaking the rich unless their proposals are considered in relation to the equally unbalanced burdens imposed on the less affluent by tariffs and monetary policies. A one-paragraph discussion of the balanced- budget amendment, labeling it a ``chimera,'' though perceptive, hardly covers the range of relevant concerns. Advocating a flat tax so simple that returns can be mailed in on a postcard and then referring to deductions for business expenditures even suggests a lack of systematic thought. Most importantly, the failings of contemporary politicians cannot be the whole story behind the recent, persistent deficits, for Gordon supplies considerable evidence that politicians have always had failings. For those seeking to understand the national debt, this book is a good place to start—it's just not a good place to stop.
Pub Date: Feb. 13, 1997
ISBN: 0-8027-1323-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1997
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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