The Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and the Gendering of Consumer Culture, 1880s to 1910s Book

How did advertising come to seem natural and ordinary to magazine readers by the end of the nineteenth century? This book explores readers' interactions with advertising during a period when not only consumption but advertising itself became established as a pleasure. Garvey argues that readers' participation in advertising, rather than top-down dictation by advertisers, has made advertising such a central part of American culture. Her analyses interweaves such diverse texts and artifacts as scrapbooks, medical articles, paper dolls, chromolithographed trade cards, advertising trade journals, and even contest rules as she tracks new forms of fictional realism that contained brand name references, courtship stories, and other fictional forms. Accessibly written and illustrated with forty-four fascinating images of the period, The Adman in the Parlor unearths the lively conversations among writers and advertisers about the new prevalence of advertising for mass-produced, nationally distributed products.Read More