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How the American Department Store Fashioned the Middle Class
St. Martin's Press
September 2006
On Sale: August 22, 2006
352 pages
ISBN: 0312326351
EAN: 9780312326357
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction History
In the early part of the twentieth century, department
stores peddled everything from dresses to kitchen
appliances. From the 1920s to the 1960s, they took on a new
role as the ultimate arbiters of taste, showing a growing
middle class the goods they needed to move up the social
ladder. In Service and Style, Jan Whitaker gives readers a
historical tour through these wonders of the retail world
looking at their early forms, how they grew and what theyve
become today. She looks at specific stores like Jordan
Marsh, John Wanamakers, Macys, A&S and Gimbels. She looks at
the post WWII boom and the developing catalogue business
attached to certain retailers like Sears and Roebuck. Filled
with a great deal of nostalgia for days gone by, Service and
Style is also an important cultural history. Besides making
many of us think back to the first time we saw the Marshall
Fields Christmas tree or John Wanamakers Dancing Waters
display, Whitaker reminds us what a vital part the
department store has played in the history of American
business and the life of the American family.
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