Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning
Winner of the Hagley Prize in Business History from The Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History ConferenceSelected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title
Originally published in 1999. Imagining Consumers tells for the first time the story of American consumer society from the perspective of mass-market manufacturers and retailers. It relates the trials and tribulations of china and glassware producers in their contest for the hearts of the working- and middle-class women who made up more than eighty percent of those buying mass-manufactured goods by the 1920s.
Based on extensive research in untapped corporate archives, Imagining Consumers supplies a fresh appraisal of the history of American business, culture, and consumerism. Case studies illuminate decision making in key firms--including the Homer Laughlin China Company, the Kohler Company, and Corning Glass Works--and consider the design and development of ubiquitous lines such as Fiesta tableware and Pyrex Ovenware.
"1101796205"
Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning
Winner of the Hagley Prize in Business History from The Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History ConferenceSelected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title
Originally published in 1999. Imagining Consumers tells for the first time the story of American consumer society from the perspective of mass-market manufacturers and retailers. It relates the trials and tribulations of china and glassware producers in their contest for the hearts of the working- and middle-class women who made up more than eighty percent of those buying mass-manufactured goods by the 1920s.
Based on extensive research in untapped corporate archives, Imagining Consumers supplies a fresh appraisal of the history of American business, culture, and consumerism. Case studies illuminate decision making in key firms--including the Homer Laughlin China Company, the Kohler Company, and Corning Glass Works--and consider the design and development of ubiquitous lines such as Fiesta tableware and Pyrex Ovenware.
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Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning
Winner of the Hagley Prize in Business History from The Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History ConferenceSelected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title
Originally published in 1999. Imagining Consumers tells for the first time the story of American consumer society from the perspective of mass-market manufacturers and retailers. It relates the trials and tribulations of china and glassware producers in their contest for the hearts of the working- and middle-class women who made up more than eighty percent of those buying mass-manufactured goods by the 1920s.
Based on extensive research in untapped corporate archives, Imagining Consumers supplies a fresh appraisal of the history of American business, culture, and consumerism. Case studies illuminate decision making in key firms--including the Homer Laughlin China Company, the Kohler Company, and Corning Glass Works--and consider the design and development of ubiquitous lines such as Fiesta tableware and Pyrex Ovenware.
Regina Lee Blaszczyk, Ph.D., is Director of the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Phildelphia.
Table of Contents
AcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1. Cinderella StoriesChapter 2. China ManiaChapter 3. Beauty for a DimeChapter 4. Fiesta!Chapter 5. Better Products for Better HomesChapter 6. Pyrex PioneersChapter 7. Easier Living?ConclusionList of AbbreviationsNotesEssay on SourcesIndex
What People are Saying About This
Jeffrey L. Meikle
Blaszczyk has written a fascinating account of negotiations between producers and consumers in the glass and ceramics industries, illustrating a symbiotic process by which manufacturers attempted to discover and keep up with the shifting demands of ordinary people. This study will transform our understanding of the history of design, marketing, and consumer culture.
Roland Marchand
From Roland Marchand, late Professor of History, University of California at Davis
Imagining Consumers embodies a depth of archival research, an exquisite detail
and clarity in explication, and an astuteness in analysis that should make it a classic in its field. I
know of no other study of an industry or groups of industries that so incisively links the stories of
technology, business management and consumer relations so thoroughly and effectively.
From the Publisher
Blaszczyk has written a fascinating account of negotiations between producers and consumers in the glass and ceramics industries, illustrating a symbiotic process by which manufacturers attempted to discover and keep up with the shifting demands of ordinary people. This study will transform our understanding of the history of design, marketing, and consumer culture.—Jeffrey L. Meikle