Land Of Desire

By: RiS

Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture William Leach Random House; 1993 428 Pages The transformations that America went through in order to become a capitalist country were very significant and are sometimes looked past. However, in the book Land of Desire, the author, William Leach extensively goes into many of those things. There were many things that went into this ranging from specific poeple and incidents to outside places and things. Leach shows each individual ordeal and explains the personal effect that it had on the industry, as well as how society accepted, or in some cases condemned such things. All of this comes from his own education and understanding of the situation. He shows the drift into a capitalistic country as being a gradual change in one thing that then led to another, and to another, and so on. Not to mention that many, many things took part in it. And that if such things had not occurred, we would not be the country that we are today. There isn't a whole lot of information on William Leach, but he does appear to be a very well-thought out man. This is not his only historical book and he's also done other things, including the book True Love and Perfect Union: The Feminist Reform of Sex and Society, and editing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. That specifically shows up a number of times in Land of Desire. He refers to L. Frank Baum (the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) throughout the book, as well as to the book itself. Other than that, though, there's not much else I know about him, too bad it's not exactly the most helpful information as far as why he thinks the way he does. Leach broke the book up into 5 major parts. The first being the preface and the introduction. These two parts laid out the main ideas of the book. After that, Leach went into the three main sections of the book, which end up being the three main steps in the transformation into capitalism. The first entitled Strategies of Enticement, went into a little bit of history, as well as the first recognition of capitalism and were it all began. The second section, Circuits of Power, retold stories of how the public reacted to the whole thing. It also dealt with the philosophical side of capitalism. The final major section of the book, Managing a Dream Culture, displayed the managerial aspects of capitalism and the poeple behind it. Then, the last pages illustrate how the history in the book affected our country today, hence the its Legacies. It pretty much sums up why what happened was important and the such. "This book exhibits how this older culture was challenged and was gradually superseded by the new culture," (p8). That pretty much sums up the first section of the book, Strategies of Enticement. Within this chapter you see the clear path towards capitalism being chosen. It starts out with what led up to the idea of capitalism, including the merchant John Wanamaker and the retail wars. It sets up the most vital history to understanding the whole transmission into capitalism. The next step to the up and rising consumer industry was the elaborate and aesthetically pleasing forms of advertisement that began. It all began with the advertising cards and eventually led to billboards and electrical advertising. This is also one of the first times that Baum is discussed, this time concerning his manual on "the arts of decorating and display" (p56). This was really the chapter of advertisement's roots. One of the last chapters of this section is about fashion and the effect it had on the market. It also links the wants of the US consumers to the haves of the European consumers, specifically France. The first of many fashion shows begin arising here and the impact that foreign countries have on what is "in" and "out" begin here. Later on, Oriental fashion shows up in a similar way. The final chapter in this section goes into the detail of the first customer services. It begins the linkage between capitalism and religion here due to the fact that many of the ideals in customer services were similar to those ideals of Christians. Despite the fact that "Americans had broken from their older religious heritage, at their best they still retained the spirit of service" (p115). And from there the hospitality in public places such as daycares, live music, etc all began. It also touched on refunds and what we would now call credit cards. The next few chapters wrapped into the section entitled Circuits of Power, broadened on the effects of the growing consumer awareness and capitalism. It discusses just how much of an impact capitalism and it's creations had on every day life for the poeple. Museums, restaurants, hotels, and even educational systems among other things all changed their ways due to the new ideas brought about by capitalism. Commercial art schools sprung up in a number of places and the book even went into the fact that many "furniture designers, and designers of wrapping papers, combs, labels, and packaging visited the Brooklyn museum" (p170) as a way to expand their minds and products. The new places had an impact on things like the transportation even, "special subway stations were erected for the big department stores and hotels" (p173). Things were changing in a big way. This is also the section where religion is expanded upon, as well as the philosophy of mind curing. The big debate concerning religion here is whether capitalism and the consumer industry can grow and still stay moral. This is something that seems t be argued about any change and the answer seemed to be more so than anything, no. Wanamaker came up and was a prime model in that area. He did many moral things for the community like set up youth groups and the such, but when it came to business, his goals changed to personal gratification. Although a few poeple still thought it possible, more thought that the "split perspective reflected a division in public and personal goals and undercut the ability of religion to deal with the crucial public issues of the day" (p195). And so it usually went. Mind curing started up soon after the rise of consumerism through literature, mainly. It consisted of "common roots with both liberal and evangelical Protestantism and carried to an extreme many of the most liberal tendencies of in those faiths" (p 226). Such authors as L. Frank Baum and Eleanor Porter supported and helped to spread the philosophy throughout the country and it held onto a number of poeple for quite a while. The last section of the book, Managing a Dream Culture, was a lot about the ...

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Land Of Desire

Land Of Desire

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