Publisher Description

The dreams of abundance, choice, and novelty that have fueled the growth of consumer culture in the United States would seem to have little place in the history of Mississippi—a state long associated with poverty, inequality, and rural life. But as Ted Ownby demonstrates in this innovative study, consumer goods and shopping have played important roles in the development of class, race, and gender relations in Mississippi from the antebellum era to the present.

After examining the general and plantation stores of the nineteenth century, a period when shopping habits were stratified according to racial and class hierarchies, Ownby traces the development of new types of stores and buying patterns in the twentieth century, when women and African Americans began to wield new forms of economic power. Using sources as diverse as store ledgers, blues lyrics, and the writings of William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, and Will Percy, he illuminates the changing relationships among race, rural life, and consumer goods and, in the process, offers a new way to understand the connection between power and culture in the American South.

Flap

Shows how consumer goods and shopping have played important roles in the development of class, race, and gender relations in Mississippi from the antebellum era to the present

Author Biography

Ted Ownby is professor of history and southern studies at the University of Mississippi and author of "Subduing Satan: Recreation, Religion, and Manhood in the Rural South, 1865-1920"(UNC Press).

Table of Contents

ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter One. Men Buying Cloth: The Limits of Shopping among Nineteenth-Century Farmers Chapter Two. Wealthy Men, Wealthy Women, and Slaves as Antebellum Consumers Chapter Three. You Don't Want Nothing: Goods, Plantation Labor, and the Meanings of Freedom, 1865-1920s Chapter Four. New Stores and New Shoppers, 1880-1930 Chapter Five. Gladys Smith, Dorothy Dickins, and Consumer Ideals for Women, 1920s-1950s Chapter Six. Goods, Migration, and the Blues, 1920s-1950s Chapter Seven. Percy, Wright, Faulkner, and Welty: Montgomery Ward Snopes and the Intellectual Challenges of Consumption Chapter Eight. White Christmas: Boycotts and the Meanings of Shopping, 1960-1990 Epilogue. A "Fine New Day"? Notes Bibliography Index IllustrationsLeigh's Chapel Store, Tipton County, Tennessee, early 1900s Dry goods store in Bolivar, Tennessee, 1913 Joseph Perlinsky, Canton, Mississippi Abroms New City Store, Rosedale, Mississippi, 1939 North Washington Street, Vicksburg, Mississippi, 1936 Good Hope Plantation, Mileston, Mississippi, 1939 Woman with a mail-order catalog, Washington County, Mississippi, 1937 Workers moving between Clarksdale and Greenville, 1938 The Hoffman 5 and 10 Cent Store, Greenville, Mississippi, 1905 Kew Mercantile, Wiggins, Mississippi The Woolworth store in Laurel, Mississippi Commerce Street, West Point, Mississippi, 1907 Quilters in a home near Pace, Mississippi, 1939 Woman in Hinds County, Mississippi, wearing clothing made from a fertilizer sack Juke joint outside Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1939 Robinson Motor Company, Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1939 Elderly couple in Madison County, Tennessee, 1910 Downtown Port Gibson, Mississippi, 1940 Tables1. Accounts at General Stores, by Gender 2. Customers at General Stores, by Gender 3. Purchases Made by Sixty-seven Customers at the F. H. Campbell Store, Lodi, Mississippi, 1889-1891 4. Most Expensive Individual Purchases at Stores, 1831-1894 5. Spinning Wheels, Looms, and Spinning Machines Owned by People of Different Levels of Wealth in Nineteenth-century Mississippi 6. Methods of Payment at Rogers and Hearn Store, Jackson, Tennessee, 1859-1860 7. Amounts Paid in Cash by Slaves at Rogers and Hearn Store, 1859-1860 8. Fabric Purchases Made by Slaves at Rogers and Hearn Store, 1859-1860 9. Value of Hats Purchased by Slaves at Rogers and Hearn Store, 1859-1860 10. Visits by Slaves to Rogers and Hearn Store, March 1859-February 1860 11. Nonmusical Work Performed by Blues Musicians, 1910-1949

Review

An important work that should serve as a model for similar studies."Journal of American History" A valuable work of social history that could encourage a reevaluation of many premises about the Deep South."Booklist" A provocative social history that examines the consumer behavior around four powerful dreams. "Library Journal" [Ownby] opens a new window on a distinctive southern state."North Carolina Historical Review" "With this well-written and thoughtful book, Ownby adds an unexpected case study to the burgeoning literature on American consumerism. "Choice"" With this well-written and thoughtful book, Ownby adds an unexpected case study to the burgeoning literature on American consumerism. "Choice" YOwnby opens a new window on a distinctive southern state."North Carolina Historical Review"

Long Description

The dreams of abundance, choice, and novelty that have fueled the growth of consumer culture in the United States would seem to have little place in the history of Mississippi

Review Quote

With this well-written and thoughtful book, Ownby adds an unexpected case study to the burgeoning literature on American consumerism.Choice

Promotional "Headline"

"A major contribution to the growing historiography of American consumerism. . . . An important work that should serve as a model for similar studies."-- Journal of American History

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