"A thorough and wide-ranging synthetic account of social scientific research on consumption which will set the standard for the second generation of textbooks on cultures of consumption."
- Alan Warde, University of Manchester

"The multi-disciplinary nature of the book provides new and revealing insights, and Sassatelli conveys brilliantly the heterogeneity and ambivalent nature of consumer identities, consumer practices and consumer cultures... Newcomers to consumer culture will find this an invaluable primer and introducton to the major concepts and ideas, while those familiar with the field will find Sassatellis sharp analysis and discussion both refreshing and inspiring."
- James Skinner, Journal of Sociology

"This is a model of what a text book ought to be. Over the past decade the original debates about consumption have been overlaid by a vast amount of detailed research, and it seems unimaginable that a single text couuld do justice to all of these. To do so would involve as much a commitment to depth as to breadth. I was quite astonished at how well Sassatelli succeeds in balancing the two... Ultimately, its the book that I would trust to help people digest what we now have discovered about consumption and start from a much more mature and reflective foundation to consider what more we might yet do."
- Daniel Miller, Material World

Showing the cultural and institutional processes that have brought the notion of the consumer to life, this book guides the reader on a comprehensive journey through the history of how we have come to understand ourselves as consumers in a consumer society and reveals the profound ambiguities and ambivalences inherent within. While rooted in sociology, Sassatelli draws on the traditions of history, anthropology, geography and economics to provide:

a history of the rise of consumer culture around the worlda richly illustrated analysis of theory from neo-classical economics, to critical theory, to theories of practice and ritual de-commoditizationa compelling discussion of the politics underlying our consumption practices.

An exemplary introduction to the history and theory of consumer culture, this book provides nuanced answers to some of the most central questions of our time.

THE RISE OF CONSUMER CULTURE
Chapter 1: Capitalism and the Consumer Revolution
Consumption, Production and Exchange
The Genesis of Consumer Capitalism
From Courts to Cities, from Luxuries to Fashion
Chapter 2: The Cultural Production of Economic Value
Commodity Flows, Knowledge Flows
The Invention of the Consumer and the cultural trajectories of good
Consumer Society as Historical Type
THEORIES OF CONSUMER AGENCY
Chapter 3: Utility and Social Competition
The Sovereign Consumer
The Limits of Economic Rationality
Fashion, Style and Conspicuous Consumption
Beyond Emulation
Chapter 4: Needs, Manipulation and Simulation
From Commodity Fetishism to Critical Theory
Nature, Authenticity and Resistance
Post-Modern Pessimism
Social Relations and Consumption
Chapter 5: Taste, Identity and Practices
Taste and Distinction
Cultural Classification and Identity
Appropriating Commodities
Ambivalence and Practice
THE POLITICS OF CONSUMPTION
Chapter 6: Representation and Consumerism
The Anti-Consumerist Rhetoric and the Apology of Consumption
Advertising Cultures and their Languages
The Functions and Meanings of Ads
Ideology, Social Differences and Consumerism
Chapter 7: Commodities and Consumers
Commoditization and De-commoditization
Goods, Values and the Boundaries of Commoditization
The Normalization of Consumption
Chapter 8: Contexts of Consumption
Leisure, Commercial Institutions and Public Places
The Home, the Commercialization of Feelings and Cultural Consumption
Local Consumption in Mcdonaldized settings
Alternative Consumption and Social Movements