Building a Market: The Rise of the Home Improvement Industry, 1914-1960 Contributor(s): Harris, Richard (Author) |
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ISBN: 0226317668 ISBN-13: 9780226317663 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $55.44 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: August 2012 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 20th Century - Business & Economics | Industries - General |
Dewey: 338.476 |
LCCN: 2012005110 |
Series: Historical Studies of Urban America |
Physical Information: 1.5" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (1.70 lbs) 448 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Each year, North Americans spend as much money fixing up their homes as they do buying new ones. This obsession with improving our dwellings has given rise to a multibillion-dollar industry that includes countless books, consumer magazines, a cable television network, and thousands of home improvement stores.Building a Market charts the rise of the home improvement industry in the United States and Canada from the end of World War I into the late 1950s. Drawing on the insights of business, social, and urban historians, and making use of a wide range of documentary sources, Richard Harris shows how the middle-class preference for home ownership first emerged in the 1920s--and how manufacturers, retailers, and the federal government combined to establish the massive home improvement market and a pervasive culture of Do-It-Yourself. Deeply insightful, Building a Market is the carefully crafted history of the emergence and evolution of a home improvement revolution that changed not just American culture but the American landscape as well. |
Contributor Bio(s): Harris, Richard: - Richard Harris is professor of quantitative social geography in the School of Geographical Sciences at University of Bristol. |