Globalism Not Exceptionalism

Kristin Hoganson's Consumer's Imporium is an ambitious project that seeks to uncover a layer of American history overwhelmed by two narratives that disparage its very existence. It is the examination of middle-class households articulating with an international marketplace for consumption of food, clothing, interior decoration, and entertainment in the post–Civil War to post–World War I era. Nevertheless, in terms of “globalism,” this time period has often been masked by America's expansion in the period following World War I and especially after World War II. With respect to domestic narratives, those of assimilation and exceptionalism have muted the internationalism in this timeframe.1 The work is thoroughly researched, well argued, and carefully documented; however, in its more than 250 pages of text, there are many questions unanswered for those seeking a dialogue with the global community. The book is divided into five chapters, one on interior decoration and household objects, one on fashion, one on cooking/entertaining, one on travel clubs, and finally one on the immigrant gifts movement. While the latter may have been a uniquely American experience, household decoration, fashion, home economics, and entertainment/leisure of the middle classes were experienced at a global level.2 American women were not unique in using their money to spend on their homes and in doing so reflecting a form of self-definition (p. 13). Nor were American women unique in eclecticism

Aesthetics · American exceptionalism · Americanization · Art · Entertainment · Exceptionalism · Globalism · Globalization · Literature · Media studies · Middle class · Narrative · Political science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · World War II · Architecture, Design, and Social History · Australian History and Society · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Law