Selling Modernity

“Selling Modernity seeks not only to reconstruct the history of German advertising, but also to place this history within a broader framework of the emergence of new cultures of consumption. . . . [T]his excellent collection adds a new level to our understanding of German history.” - Gideon Reuveni, Central European History

“The volume’s uniformly excellent essays make a compelling and coherent case for several trends in twentieth-century advertising that mirror unique developments in Germany but also reflect wider transformations in the industrialized world. . . . This collection’s chronological and thematic investigations make for a coherent and continually fascinating, well-told story.” - Marion F. Deshmukh, American Historical Review

“The essays in this volume constitute a useful contribution to a relatively small body of literature written in English concerning the development and practice of marketing in Germany during the twentieth century.” - Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb, Enterprise & Society

“This collection is suitable, above all, for readers interested in the complicated nature of societies undergoing mass change at the time of the reification of the image.” - Craig Johnson, Media International Australia

“This is a welcome addition to the literature of both consumption and advertising in Europe.” - Josie McLellan, Economic History Review

“Selling Modernity is an excellent collection; every essay is superb. The contributors examine advertising and public relations in contrasting contexts: a monarchy, a liberal democracy, a popular dictatorship, a cold war democracy, a communist dictatorship, and a post–cold war reunited nation: what a historical laboratory!” - Claudia Koonz, author of The Nazi Conscience

“A highly readable and wide-ranging compilation of innovative essays on German advertising and the people who produced it under dramatically different political regimes. This major contribution to understanding the culturally specific workings of modern economies will be of interest to specialists, students, and a broader audience.” - Uta G. Poiger, author of Jazz, Rock, and Rebels: Cold War Politics and American Culture in a Divided Germany

“Advertising—this imaginative, erratic, and invasive aspect of capitalism—finds in Selling Modernity a creative and resourceful interpreter. The book marks an important shift from recent studies on consumer culture by emphasizing advertising as the link between production and consumption. It excellently shows that the ethical and economic meanings of advertisements were above all a reflection of Germans’ fantasies and dreams between 1871 and 1990.” - Alon Confino, author of Germany as a Culture of Remembrance: Promises and Limits of Writing History