The Birth of consumer society

Abstract

The paper analyzes the birth and historical development of consumer societies. Historians see their source in major European centers, mostly in London and Paris, in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. This period is characterized by the growing role of fashion and the beginnings of “massification” of consumption. The mass consumption, however, fully developed in the United States in the early twentieth century. The notion of consumer society crystallized in the social sciences in the 60s of the XX century and was used to describe the contemporary capitalist societies, which since the 50s (first America, and soon after West European countries) were dominated by the ideology of consumerism. This period should be considered a moment of emergence of a mature consumer society. Over the next decade, it strengthened its status, which was due to cultural revolution of the 60s, weakening of the Protestant ethics, liberalization and individualization of life.