Point of Purchase

<p>This accessible smart and expansive book on shopping's impact on American life is in part historical stretching back to the mid-19th century yet also has a contemporary focus with material on recent trends in shopping from the internet to Zagat's guides.<br><br>Drawing inspiration from both Pierre Bourdieu's work and Walter Benjamin's seminal essay on the shopping arcades of 19th-century Paris Zukin explores the forces that have made shopping so central to our lives: the rise of consumer culture the never-ending quest for better value and shopping's ability to help us improve our social status and attain new social identities.</p>