Capitalism and the Senses

Regina Lee Blaszczyk, David Suisman (Herausgeber)

Buch | Hardcover

312 Seiten

2023
University of Pennsylvania Press (Verlag)
978-1-5128-2420-9 (ISBN)

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Capitalism and the Senses is the first edited volume to explore how the forces of capitalism are entangled with everyday sensory experience. If the senses have a history, as Karl Marx wrote, then that history is inseparable from the development of capitalism, which has both taken advantage of the senses and influenced how sensory experience has changed over time.

This pioneering collection shows how seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching have both shaped and been shaped by commercial interests from the turn of the twentieth century to our own time. From the manipulation of taste and texture in the food industry to the careful engineering of the feel of artificial fabrics, capitalist enterprises have worked to commodify the senses in a wide variety of ways. Drawing on history, anthropology, geography, and other fields, the volume’s essays analyze not only where this effort has succeeded but also where the senses have resisted control and the logic of markets. The result is an innovative ensemble that demonstrates how the drive to exploit sensorial experience for profit became a defining feature of capitalist modernity and establishes the senses as an important dimension of the history of capitalism.

Contributors: Nicholas Anderman, Regina Lee Blaszczyk, Jessica P. Clark, Ai Hisano, Lisa Jacobson, Sven Kube, Grace Lees-Maffei, Ingemar Pettersson, David Suisman, Ana María Ulloa, Nicole Welk-Joerger.

Regina Lee Blaszczyk is Professor of Business History and Leadership Chair in the History of Business and Society at the University of Leeds. David Suisman is Associate Professor of History at the University of Delaware.

Series Editor’s Foreword

Roger Horowitz

Introduction

Regina Lee Blaszczyk and David Suisman

Part I. Framing Capitalism and the Senses

Chapter 1. “Use Not Perfumery to Flavor Soup”: The Science of the Senses in Aesthetic Capitalism

Ai Hisano

Chapter 2. Chasing Flavor: Sensory Science and the Economy

Ingemar Pettersson

Chapter 3. Richer Sounds: Capitalism, Musical Instruments, and the Cold War Sonic Divide

Sven Kube

Part II. Resisting Rationalization

Chapter 4. Altered States and Gustatory Taste: The Sensory Synergies of Whiskey Marketing in the Mid-Twentieth-Century United States

Lisa Jacobson

Chapter 5. The Psychophysics of Taste and Smell: From Experimental Science to Commercial Tool

Ana María Ulloa

Chapter 6. Sky’s the Limit: Capitalism, the Senses, and the Failure of Commercial Supersonic Aviation in the United States

David Suisman

Chapter 7. Sounding Maritime Metal: On Weathering Steel and Listening to Capitalism at Sea

Nicholas Anderman

Part III. Production

Chapter 8. Making Human Trash Tasty: A History of Sweet Cattle Feed in the Progressive Era

Nicole Welk-Joerger

Chapter 9. Getting a Handle on It: Thomas Lamb, Mass Production, and Touch in Design History

Grace Lees-Maffei

Part IV. Marketplace

Chapter 10. Fragrance and Fair Women: Perfumers and Consumers in Modern London

Jessica P. Clark

Chapter 11. Sold on Softness: DuPont Synthetics and Sensory Experience

Regina Lee Blaszczyk

Chapter 12. Feminine Touches: The Sensory World of Lady Hilton

Megan J. Elias

Notes

List of Contributors

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	17.07.2023
Reihe/Serie	Hagley Perspectives on Business and Culture
Zusatzinfo	21 b/w
Verlagsort	Pennsylvania
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Mikroökonomie
ISBN-10	1-5128-2420-8 / 1512824208
ISBN-13	978-1-5128-2420-9 / 9781512824209
Zustand	Neuware