Commodifying Everything: Relationships of the Market(Hagley Center Studies in the History of Business and Technology)

Commodification refers most explicitly to the activities of turning things into commodities and of commercializing that which is not commercial in essence. The mass marketing of pets, the rise of the coffin industry, the conversion of preacher into salesmen, and the globalization of Taleggio cheese are some of the exciting but surprising topics in this volume that show how friendship, death, spirituality, and artisanship all have a price after being commodified. This unique collection of essays is a fascinating take on creating consumer products and consumer identities when what's for sale goes well beyond the thing itself. It will be a course-in-a-box for instructors who want to teach their students about commodification.

Table of Contents:
BOUNDARIES OF THE MARKET Susan Strasser , Introduction Jean-Christophe Agnew , The Give and Take of Consumer Culture LOVE AND MONEY: INTIMATE RELATIONSHIIPS AND THE MARKET Katherine C. Grier , Buying Your Friends: The Pet Business and American Consumer Culture Helen Sheumaker , The Commodity of Self: Nineteenth-Century Hair Jewelry GOODS AND SERVICES: EXPANDING MARKET RELATIONSHIPS Nancy Tomes , An Undesired Necessity: The Commodification of Medical Service in the Interwar United States Brent W. Tharp , Preserving Their Form and Features: The Commodification Of Coffins in the American Understanding of Death GOD AND MAMMON: SELLING AND SACRED Barbra Mann Wall , Health Care as Product: Catholic Sisters Confront Charity and the Hospital Marketplace, 1865-1925 John M. Giggie , Preachers and Peddlers of God: Ex-Slaves and the Selling of African American Religion in the Postbellum South Anne Hardgrove , The Politics of Ghee Adulteration and its Public Resolutions in Calcutta, c. 1917 VILLAGE AND NATION: COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, AND THE MARKET Andrew B. Fisher , Marketing Community: State Reform of Indian Village Property and Expenditure in Colonial Mexico Karl Gerth , Commodifying Chinese Nationalism: MSG and the Flavor of Patriotic Production Cristina Grasseni , Packaging Skills: Calibrating Cheese to the Global Market

About the Author :
Susan Strasser is a Professor of History at the University of Delaware. Her scholarly work focuses on the intersection of private and public: domestic experiences and American corporate activity. She is the author of several books including Waste and Want: A Social Historyof Trash and Never Done: A History of American Housework

Review :
"Covering an unusual mix of goods and services, these original essays illuminate how the market has entered into all spheres of human life, from the personal dimensions of everyday life to public policy and statecraft. Together they demonstrate how commodification goes beyond economic relationships to encompass cultural, social, and political processes. Whether exploring the commercialization of health care, the ambiguous status of pets, or the place of cheese in national identity, Commodifying Everything offers keen historical analyses and surprising insights." -- Kathy Peiss, University of Pennsylvania