Pocketbook Politics Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America

"This is one of the most ambitious, original, and wisest books about power in twentieth-century America that I have read in years. With her narrative about the vital politics of the cost of living, Meg Jacobs has transformed the scholarship about modern liberals and their opponents on the Right."--Michael Kazin, author ofThe Populist Persuasion: An American History"Meg Jacobs has produced an extraordinarily lucid analysis of how consumers allied with trade unions to influence prices and wages. In a provocative and mind-bending book, she demonstrates how the efforts of quite ordinary people led to political agendas that shaped the twentiet-century state."--Alice Kessler-Harris, author ofIn Pursuit of Equity: Gender and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America"Written with unusual narrative power,Pocketbook Politicsmakes the political economy of purchasing power and mass consumption central to our understanding of modern America. In achieving a fresh analytical narrative of economic ideas, policymaking, and popular politics, this major book forces an engagement with issues and historical understandings long cast in other terms. It also sets a standard for the new political history its author has done so much to promote."--Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University"Meg Jacobs has written a highly significant book that, by illuminating major transitions in twentieth-century politics, recasts our understanding of the relationship of politics, state building, economic policy, labor unions, and consumer culture."--Daniel Horowitz, author ofThe Anxieties of Affluence: Critiques of American Consumer Culture, 1939-1979Jacobs, Meg is the author of 'Pocketbook Politics Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America', published 2007 under ISBN 9780691130415 and ISBN 0691130418.