Victoria De Grazia
Author of Irresistible Empire: America's Advance Through Twentieth-Century Europe
About the Author
Works by Victoria De Grazia
Associated Works
A History of Women in the West, Volume V: Toward a Cultural Identity in the Twentieth Century (1992) — Contributor — 203 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1946
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Education
- Smith College (BA|1968)
Columbia University (PhD) - Occupations
- Professor of History and Contemporary Civilization, Columbia University
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 10
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 332
- Popularity
- #71,553
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 6
- ISBNs
- 32
- Languages
- 2
De Grazia writes, “As the United States converted to peacetime, the supermarket was cheered as the hallmark of the American system of free enterprise…For Europeans, the supermarket offered a new model of industrial beauty: the shadow-free luminosity of neon lights, the constant temperatures of air-conditioned spaces, the vast glass-and-steel refrigeration units, the rows of brightly colored cans and packages, the mounds of fresh produce graded in string sacks or cellophane-wrapped containers” (pg. 384). She continues, “The modern consumer household…as it emerged in post-World War II Europe, was inspired by a common, public, indeed Western-wide standard of equipment. Against the class-divided, regionally segmented, highly localized living styles of the past, government, business, tastemakers, and consumers converged in envisaging a mass-middle standard of household consumption. This common standard was favored on economic grounds to accommodate the large-scale output of mass-production industries” (pg. 418).
De Grazia concludes, “Down to the 1960s, American policymakers had treated efforts to raise the standard of living as the centerpiece of the global movement for human rights. And the American ‘standard package’ of goods was held up as a model to prod western Europe to develop its own concept of ‘citizenship goods’ and pressure Soviet Europe to dedicate more resources to consumer investment. But from the 1970s on, official America backed away from asserting any universal right to a high standard of living. And by the 1980s, on the score of health care, leisure time, diet, social security, and numerous other indicators of the good life, the average western European enjoyed a higher standard of living than the average American” (pg. 462). Finally, “Mass consumer culture is such an ephemeral form of material life that the great ruptures that formed it are easily lost to sight. As interest in its history grows and U.S. hegemony is discredited, the temptation will be strong to downplay the role that American social inventions played in local developments” (pg. 477).… (more)