Rethinking Politics: Consumers and the Public Good during the "Jazz Age".

UNITED States politics & government, 1919-1933; UNITED States economy, 1918-1945; UNITED States history, 1919-1933; POLITICAL stability; CONSUMER law; SUFFRAGE; SOCIALISM; CYNICISM

The article focuses on the economic abundance and political quiescence in the U.S. in the 1920s. It explores the private pleasure afforded by the affluence of jazz age that displays either indifference or cynicism to the well-being of the public sphere. It discusses the rise of consumer policy that explains the economic vibrancy and political passivity. It highlights the purchase of a vast array of new and brand-named consumables rather than throwing themselves into political struggles that include campaigns for suffrage and socialism. The historians show that the decade is crucial in the development of consumer politics.