In twentieth-century Britain, consumerism increasingly defined and redefined individual and social identities. New types of consumers emerged: the idealized working-class consumer, the African consumer and the teenager challenged the prominent position of the middle and upper-class female shopper.

1. Introduction: Consuming Behaviours: Identity, Politics and Pleasure in Twentieth-Century BritainErika D. Rappaport, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA; Sandra Trudgen Dawson, Northern Illinois University, USA; Mark J. Crowley, Wuhan University, ChinaPart I: Gender, Sexuality and Youth: Cultivating and Managing New Consumers2. Who is the Queer Consumer? Historical Perspectives on Capitalism and HomosexualityJustin Bengry, Birkbeck, University of London, UK3. 'Healthier and Better Clothes for Men': Men's Dress Reform in Interwar BritainIna Zweiniger-Bargielowska, University of Illinois, USA4. Selling, Consuming and Becoming the Beautiful Man in Britain: The 1930s and 1940s Paul Deslandes, University of Vermont, USA5. Rational Recreation in the Age of Affluence: The Café and Working-Class Youth in London, c.1939-1965 Kate Bradley, University of Kent, UK6. Teenagers, Photography and Self-fashioning: 1956-1965Penny Tinkler, University of Manchester, UK7. Unwanted Consumers: Violence and Consumption in British Football in the 1970s Brett Bebber, Old Dominion University, USAPart II: In and Beyond the Nation: The Local and the Global in the Production of Consumer Cultures8. Consumer Communication as Commodity: British Advertising Agencies and the Global Market for Advertising 1780-1980Stefan Schwarzkopf, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark9. Drink Empire Tea: Conservative Politics and Imperial Consumerism in Interwar BritainErika D. Rappaport, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA10. Female Credit Customers, the United Africa Company, and Consumer Markets in Postwar Ghana, Bianca Murillo, Willamette University, USA11. Designing Consumer Society: Citizens and Housing Plans during the Second World War, Sandra Trudgen Dawson, Northern Illinois University, USA12. Saving for the Nation: The Post Office and National Consumerism: c.1860-1945Mark J. Crowley, Wuhan University, China13. Prosperity for All? Britain and Mass Consumption in Western Europe after the Second World WarKenneth Mouré, University of Alberta, Canada14. A House Divided: The Organized Consumer and the British Labour Party, 1945-60 Peter Gurney, University of Essex, UK15. Early British Television: The Allure and Threat of AmericaKelly Boyd, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, UKBibliographyIndex

Covers a wide range of topics, exploring the relations between government, politics and the consumption of goods or of leisure; the ways in which consumerism has been shaped by and shapes new gender, sexual and racial identities; and it positions consumer culture within the increasingly connected global market and culture