Peter N. Stearns, Consumerism in World History: The Global Transformation of Desire. London and New York: Routledge, 2001. xii + 147 pp. $17.95 (paperback), ISBN: 0-415-24409-9; $60 (hardcover), ISBN: 0-415-24408-0.

Reviewed for EH.NET by Jasmine Aimaq, Department of History, University of Southern California.

According to author Peter Stearns (George Mason University), the rationale behind writing Consumerism in World History: The Global Transformation of Desire is that our world is currently "permeated by consumerism" -- hence the importance of understanding why consumerism developed and what causes have sustained it. Stearns, well established as a leading voice in World History, argues that his study of consumerism will allow a better grasp of various international issues, and offer some readers new perspectives on themselves. He then presents a succinct, brief analysis of the evolution of consumerism in a 142-page volume broken into three main parts. The first part analyzes the emergence of consumerism in the West; the second, the globalization of consumerism; and the third, the future of consumerism.

A review of this work first requires an establishment of perspective. It appears that the book is intended for a general readership, since it cites no primary sources, nor makes references to secondary sources, and can therefore not be evaluated primarily on the grounds of scholarly rigor and original research. Stearns' book must instead be reviewed in terms of the contribution it makes in broader terms, namely, as a general, insightful presentation of ideas and perspectives on the emergence of consumerism in human society. To that end, Stearns proposes to focus on two phenomena: the historical development of the consumer apparatus, and the emergence of needs and goals from the customer side. He notes particularly that the book is value-neutral, treating consumerism as neither inherently good or evil.

In his preface, Stearns explains that Consumerism in World History rests on a fairly recent strand of research, which shows that contrary to what was previously thought, the phenomenon of consumerism predates the Industrial Revolution. Stearns does not, however, identify in what manner his work either complements or challenges existing research. There is no direct link to previous scholarship, making it impossible to evaluate the full value of Stearns' contribution. Also in his preface, Stearns signals that his work "... rests on several assumptions, which of course need to be tested in the chapters to come ..." Here, Stearns risks the pitfalls of circular reasoning, namely, the adoption of ideas that are at once assumptions and cases to be tested.

What follows, however, is a lucid, insightful and highly readable discussion on the rise and nature of consumerist society, i.e. society in which many people formulate their goals in life partly through acquiring goods that they clearly do not need for subsistence or for traditional display. Since consumerism is predominantly associated with "Western" civilization, Stearns spends a third of the book discussing the emergence of consumerism in Europe, and its eventual spread to the United States. Stearns argues that consumerism represented compensation in a modernizing society -- compensation for the disruption of traditional social channels, a means of demonstrating modest achievement in new ways.

While this point is illuminating, the argument would have greater depth if the facets of traditional life, and exactly which facets were disrupted and replaced with consumerism, were explored more fully. Stearns notes the decline of traditional religion, for instance, but does not analyze the concept of consumerism as a religion of its own. This has been one of the interesting contributions of recent studies outside of history -- in sociology, environmental studies, and religious studies, for instance. The emergence of consumerism parallels the emergence of the free market, and arguments presented by scholars such as David R. Loy ("The Religion of the Market," in Visions of a New Earth: Religious Perspectives on Population, Consumption and Ecology) and others emphasize the religious role that consumerism fills in contemporary society.

The lack of a discussion on this perspective in Stearns' work is somewhat disappointing, particularly in light of growing recognition among scholars and others that consumerism and environmental protection are fundamentally and dangerously at odds. If, as Stearns states in his preface, we are to study consumerism in large part to "better grasp a host of international issues," consumerism's relationship to the deteriorating global environment should be foremost among those. The absence of this issue is especially striking in Chapter 6, which provides an otherwise illuminating discussion on "The dark side of Western consumerism." The strength in this chapter is that Stearns effectively links critiques of consumerist values to broader movements such as anti-Americanism. But the relationship between the environment and consumerism, and the link between critics of consumerist values and spokesmen for the environment, seems crucial to the subject of the chapter; for some reason, however, it has been overlooked.

Similarly, the question of gender relations is addressed, but not fully explored. Stearns provides an insightful account of changes in gender relations as one aspect in the historical emergence of consumerism. But the relevance of gender to consumerism extends beyond the early stages of the phenomenon; it would be relevant to analyze whether contemporary relations between the genders foster consumerist behavior today, i.e. whether women acquire material goods in order to demonstrate economic parity with men, whether men pursue material acquisition to a greater degree than before in an effort to out-compete women, or alternatively, one another, in a society where women are increasingly economically self-sufficient. Given Stearns' expertise on gender in world history, his full insights on this issue would have been especially welcome.

The discussion in the first part of the book serves largely as an insightful introduction to different perspectives on consumerism, and provides an excellent foundation for further research. But it is the second part of the book that is perhaps the book's most illuminating and original. Here, Stearns offers a round-the-world view of consumerism, describing the phenomenon, its character, manifestation and scope, in Russia, East Asia, Africa and the Islamic Middle East. Readers who are familiar with studies on consumerism will welcome this contribution. It is fair to say that so far, most scholars in the field discuss these regions only to gauge the extent to which indicators of "Western" civilization and modernization, including consumerism, have effectively reached non-Western societies. In this work as well as previous publications, Stearns, while well aware of the influence of the West in the spread of consumerism, demonstrates a true knowledge and genuine appreciation of the "world" in "world" history. Once again, however, the discussion would have benefited from a deeper analysis of societal factors such as the role of religion, which Stearns discusses as only one of numerous factors, and its relationship to consumerist values.

The final part of the book, which contains only two brief chapters, deals briefly with the accelerating pace of globalization and the spread of "Western" style consumerism. While the first chapter of this section offers nothing controversial, and serves as a sort of summary of globalization in terms well understood by scholars, the media and social observers, the second chapter -- and book's Conclusion -- takes a surprising turn. Stearns spends the final pages of his work investigating "Who wins -- Consumerism or Consumers?" This is surprising mainly because it seems to contradict the author's introductory declaration of this study as value-neutral, as an analysis that does not wish to present consumerism as either 'good' or 'bad.'

Particularly on pp.139-142, Stearns directly addresses the 'good' and 'bad' of consumerism, asking, for instance, whether consumerism is making the world too homogeneous, and directly asking whether consumerism "is a good thing, in terms of human values." The inclusion of this discussion does not follow from what the reader is led to expect in the opening of the book, and is therefore a structural weakness. In terms of the substance of Stearns' response to the questions, it is again notable that environmental issues are alluded to in only the most general way, although they figure very prominently in today's debate on consumerism and globalization.

Stearns' most recent book is nevertheless an excellent introduction to the study of consumerism in world history, and a highly recommended read for anyone interested in the subject. Graduate students or scholars interested in developing a thesis relating to consumerism will come away from this book with a good general grasp of the phenomenon, and will be happy to find abundant secondary sources listed as "Suggested Readings" at the end of each chapter.

Jasmine Aimaq is a Visiting Professor at the Departments of History and International Relations, University of Southern California. She is the author of a book on French-American relations in Vietnam and several articles, and currently conducts the USC History Department's course on Modern World History.