Reading Germany Literature and Consumer Culture in Germany before 1933 [Hardcover]

By closely examining the interaction between intellectual and material culture in the period before the Nazis came to power in Germany, the author comes to the conclusion that, contrary to widely held assumptions, consumer culture in the Weimar period, far from undermining reading, used reading culture to enhance its goods and values. Reading material was marked as a consumer good, while reading as an activity, raising expectations as it did, influenced consumer culture. Consequently, consumption contributed to the diffusion of reading culture, while at the same time a popular reading culture strengthened consumption and its values.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1.Reading as a Barometer of German Society after the First World War
Chapter 2.Reading Culture, Reading Budgets, and Consumer Society
Chapter 3.From the Commercialization of Reading to Commercializing Reading
Chapter 4.From Reading Books to Consumption of Books and Back Again
Chapter 5.The Struggle over Reading: Studies of Reading and the Fight againstSchund- und Schmutzschriften

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

While [this study] successfully builds on the many previous studies on the world of books and publishing, what sets it apart from the existing literature is its systematic attempt to place reading culture within the emergence of consumer culture&Reuvenis basic argument is that reading was in two ways an integral element of consumer culture during the first third of the twentieth century&It is a convincing argument, which overturns a number of conventional assumptions and furnishes a wealth of insights along the way. ?????European History Quarterly

&an excellent monograph&By impressively integrating intellectual, social, economic, and cultural history, Reuveni offers a compelling, iflÃ.