From Main Street to Mall
The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of Pennsylvania Press
Published:4th Jun '15
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£27.99(9780812224399)
This book offers an insightful exploration of the American department store industry's evolution, detailing the decline of local shops and the rise of national chains like Macy's and J.C. Penney.
This comprehensive study delves into the evolution of the American department store industry, highlighting how economic and political shifts have influenced retail landscapes. From Main Street to Mall explores the transition from bustling downtown shopping districts to the emergence of big-box stores and suburban malls. With a wealth of archival photographs, the narrative captures the essence of department stores as vibrant social institutions that once defined local communities.
In the nineteenth century, luxurious department stores transformed shopping into a delightful experience, introducing elements of light, color, and music. These 'palaces of consumption' became integral to the social fabric of cities, serving as gathering places for residents. However, the post-World War II era brought significant changes, as suburban expansion and the rise of automobiles shifted economic activity away from downtowns, leading to the decline of traditional department stores.
Historian Vicki Howard meticulously traces this journey, examining both small-town retailers and iconic establishments like Marshall Field's and Wanamaker's. From Main Street to Mall provides a thorough account of how consumer behavior, governmental policies, and industry decisions shaped the retail environment, ultimately paving the way for today's dominant national chains. The book serves as a poignant reminder of the deep connections between retail spaces and American cultural, political, and economic identities.
Howard's book is essential reading. . . . From Main Street to Mall makes a significant contribution to our knowledge of retailing and of business more broadly in the U.S. * American Historical Review *
From Main Street to Mall is an important, insightful, and informative work that succeeds in charting and analysing the rise and fall of the department store and how this process was mediated by interactions between the department store industry, other business interests, local and national politics, and wider long-term changes in American society. This [could] serve as the standard U.S. reference work on this sector for many years. * Economic History Review *
Howard's book is a highly valuable complement to the current body of literature on department stores . . . Rather than acquiescing to the commonly accepted inevitability of market forces leading to the decline of department stores, Howard traces the various private and public actors and political processes that have consciously contributed to their decline. * Journal of Urban Affairs *
From Main Street to Mall is a welcome and excellent addition to the literature on mass retailing in the United States. * Business History Review *
From Main Street to Mall succeeds admirably in providing a rich history of the US department store, synthesising various perspectives-social, economic and political-to produce a highly readable account of its development and decline. * Consumption Markets & Culture *
From Main Street to Mall offers sharp analysis of American retailing from a new vantage point, advancing our understanding of the department store beyond Macy's and Marshall Field's. Historians of consumer culture have always known of smaller stores in smaller cities, but nobody paid attention to them until Vicki Howard. A significant contribution. * Susan Strasser, author of Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Making of the American Mass Market *
Combining deep historical research and vivid description, Vicki Howard lucidly explains how, when, and why the department store came to dominate American commercial culture and how the democratization of consumption, changing public policy, and the forces of globalization contributed to its transformation and demise. A must-read for researchers of American consumer culture and for anyone who loves to shop. * Regina Lee Blaszczyk, author of The Color Revolution *
- Winner of Winner of the 2016 Hagley Prize in Business History sponsored by the Business History Conference 2021
ISBN: 9780812247282
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
304 pages