{"product_id":"buying-happiness-9780774835138","title":"Buying Happiness","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBuying Happiness\u003c\/em\u003e explores the different ways that key public thinkers represented, conceptualized, and institutionalized new ideas about consumption, which shaped economic and social policy and influenced behaviour.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eLiverant makes a complex and insightful argument for a deep but largely unmarked change of perspective. Her synthesis of recent work on consumerism in Canada is illuminating. In highlighting the role of intellectuals and historic publications in constructing and reconstructing the social narratives that Canadians rely on to think about and develop personal and national identities, she gently invites present-day writers to reconsider their impact, and a more general readership to question how and why certain stories are told.\u003c\/p\u003e -- V. Michael Roberts, economist and author of The Long Depression * Prairie History *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBuying Happiness\u003c\/em\u003e should be required reading for students of twentieth-century Canada. -- Katharine Rollwagen * The Canadian Historical Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe nearest dictionary to hand unhelpfully defines consumer as “one or that which consumes”. Bettina Liverant takes us beyond linguistic tautologies to give us a first-rate intellectual history of consumer society in Canada from late Victorian times to the post-war baby boom era.\u003c\/p\u003e -- James Hull, University of British Columbia-Okanagan * Canadian Business History Association *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn that it looks at the idea of consumer society, \u003cem\u003eBuying Happiness\u003c\/em\u003e offers a welcome addition to the study of consumption. As such, \u003cem\u003eBuying Happiness\u003c\/em\u003e helps scholars recognize their own possible prejudices that they bring to the study of consumption.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Donica Belisle * American Review of Canadian Studies *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1 The Meaning Is in the Spending\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2 The Promise of a More Abundant Life\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e3 Culturing Canadian Patriotism\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e4 Moralizing the Economy\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e5 Charting the Contours of Modern Society\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e6 Regulating the Consumer\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e7 Buying Happiness\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e8 Academic Encounters\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eConclusion\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNotes; Index\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of British Columbia Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49404936618327,"sku":"9780774835138","price":62.9,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780774835138.jpg?v=1730488116","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/buying-happiness-9780774835138","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}