Author: ABHISEK KHAN

Lizbeth Cohen, “Culture: Segmenting the Mass” from her book The Consumers’ Republic is an excerpt composed of illustrations, ideas expressing political/marketing, and much more. Cohen starts off by talking about world war II and after the war ended American consumerism was booming. She specifically emphasizes the complex implications of mass consumption on postwar social interactions and political culture in particular. As it was on the rise as more and more people returned to somewhat of a peaceful life without having to worry about getting attacked or taken over.  As at the end of the war in Cohen’s opinion, the most profitable way to achieve wealth was through the mass market. But how can one trust the market as it was doubtful and marketers began to raise questions that down streamed a lot of methods that people thought were profitable. Which gained a whole lot of attention as the economy in 1957 faced recession. 

Cohen continues on exploring more of mass-market as she recognizes many theorists during that era. The contributions of major theorists were to have a significant impact on the subject of market segmentation. Wendel Smith was the first to advocate market segmentation as an alternative to mass marketing, claiming that the best way to stimulate the economy was through the “recognition of differences.” Which I found quite interesting as market segmentation was something of big influence as that makes it more approachable and easier to deal with. Cohen’s interest is in understanding how marketers, advertisers, and propaganda makers came to shift ground so decisively between mid-1945 and 1970, and then what this rethinking of the mass market, as distinct communities of consumers with distinct needs, desires, and product preferences, resulted in specific target customers. 

Consumerism had to be diverted into something different like television which was made larger and electronic items that made daily life easier. Which led to restyling of mass consumer goods. As we continue interpreting Cohen’s perspective we can read how cohen puts a lot of emphasis on television becoming the new frontier for advertisement rallying up consumers for more and more. Which only boosted market segmentation as consumerism was booming due to high demand and supply. In my opinion, this shows economic slavery in a sense where marketers use consumerism to enslave citizens back and back again for more. Ironically market segmentation and major consumerism have been only possible because of industrial production and how items became cheaper so they can provide to all sorts of customers. Cohen continues to talk about consumerism by including economic groups like children, teenagers, seniors, black, and the gay market which all contributed to market segmentation as they all created a demand for supplies which the marketers kept on bringing out. This can be seen in modern-day consumerism companies like apple and amazon are mega-powerful marketers and they use consumers to fuel their efficiency. At the very last Cohen talks more about the political perspective where she discusses how market structure ad political structure had similarities as consumers started using television to only look at the mass market but also political news. Talking about the hidden persuaders and American democracy. Cohen goes more in-depth talking about the political sphere in the later 1960s which included crafting special messages for distinctive segments where the political leader would run campaigns like Kennedy and Nixon.

 I do not think this is enough writing to cover the entirety of this beautiful and unique excerpt but by Lizabeth Cohen but what I do know is that consumerism can be looked at as something that is normal but in my opinion, I find it be somewhat like salvery as to consumerism people fall enslave to the mass market. A real-life example would be how we are enslaved to our phones on daily basis but going that is only going to get worse as there is no stop to consumerism. But one important thing I did learn is that consumerism and the mass market keep the economy booming as that includes aspects like supply/demand which profits capitalism but in Cohen’s perspective, this is a sphere people are not going to break out of any time soon which I agree with.

 

American reconstruction after the civil war which started during the mid-1860s was a huge deal as the emancipation proclamation gave black Americans freedom and with reconstruction came many reformations. . This is where Joshua Brown comes in with his Reconstruction Representation excerpt showing us the way of life from the mid-1860s all the up to the 1880s. Joshua Brown does not only talk rather uses a visual representation to express how perspective which I found very nice as it gave a sense of realism. Joshua Brown starts talking about the panic of 1873 which was about the bad representation of the poor in the economy. This is enduring to this day as different classes of people have bad representation but in the 1870s considering the level of immigration and labor wages, things were menacing to a peak. Joshua Brown also talks about Frank Leisle’s illustration in newspapers which helped spread the news of terrible representation. 

“The Great Uprising of 1877 marked a sea-change in the typing of American labor. The largely spontaneous two-week strike that paralyzed most of the nation’s industrial cities defied the expectations of observers.” ( Joshua Brown )

“Pennsylvania–The railroad riot in Pittsburgh 1877

It really is apparent to Joshua Brown that FRANK LESLIE’S ILLUSTRATED NEWSPAPER portrays it as wild and chaotic. Men and women were fighting all out inflicting chaos in the economy. Frank Leslie’s newspaper played a big role in this depiction as it gives us a vivid idea of the event. Leslie’s used photographic practices to capture these moments and pass them down in history. Although it was times of chaos who even know if these pictures has any legitimacy but they described it as such. So many people have witnessed this time in history and suffered from its consequences One would think after undergoing massive changes things will be better but they weren’t as people always wanted more and more. Continuing looking at the illustration Joshua brown uses it can be seen how there was chaos in the mids of stikes which were for jobs and proper wages. The illustration that Joshua Brown uses in his excerpts is from Leslie’s newspaper which goes to the credibility of his perspective which will help as we talk about the next things which are the 1877 railroad attacks which were considered the single most destructive incident in the nationwide strike as people were kind of crazy due to terrible representation but not only but also labor shortages where immigrants were hired more due to them being cheaper. I found Joshua Brown’s excerpt to be somewhat thrilling due to the realism the illustration added also the consequential effect of bad economical decisions.

Throughout history, it can be seen how the lower class people are the ones who always fall victim to unemployment and poverty. It is no surprise that class inequality is still thriving to this day. The gap between the classes is tremendously big and not getting smaller any time soon. The paper written by Seth Rockman named “Dredging and Drudgery” where he talks about early Baltimore Maryland. In which he explores the Baltimore republic and class conditions. During that time people of Baltimore were struggling with employment which was very scarce. I personally would not be surprised if the scarcity of employment was due to capitalists as they are the ones during that time who had the most capital and favored autonomy. Rockman continues to talk about Baltimore’s manual labor which he said that hard laborers were dredging where people excavate sand to form a new establishment. In Baltimore’s case, new harbors were formed in which more ships came to Baltimore with rich resources.

“Many of the workers stood knee-deep in the water while shoveling debris in and out of the scows. The work was grueling, filthy, and unsuited to the virtuous habits of republican artisans. Without it, however, Baltimore’s commercial prosperity would have ceased.” 

( Rockman 76) 

One would think with this employment that the lower class will be doing well but no that is not the as it is no surprise that the capitalists are the ones who the benefiting the most from this all this overall manual labor. Baltimore also had slaves who were part of the hard labor force during that time as Rockman described it as the slaves trading on hard labor so they can get their families free. To working-class Baltimoreans, the reasons for poverty were obvious a lack of employment, increased costs for limited quantities of basic essentials. According to Rockman workers’ “adapted” survival tactics that are built on basic fundamental characteristics of the early republic’s capitalist culture which was to stop looking for enjoyment rather have the courage/willingness to work harder in order to improve the conditions of family members.

An interesting character to look for while reading Rockman’s paper is Owen Mullen who was a mudmechanist for more than 20 years. 

“Mullen had toiled on the mudmachine for upwards of twenty years. For Mullen and his co-workers, manual labor was not a life stage to be outgrown, but a career.” ( Rockman 99)

The majority of backbreaking labor fell on the lower class and slaves 1838 petitions which were about increasing minimum wage had mullen’s name affixed to it showing traits of economic change. We can look at time as a fight versus two groups ( Bourgeois vs Proleteriants ) which is very enduring as it can be seen throughout history but also in our modern society. Rockman’s Dredging and Drudgery was a very interesting reading that showed early Baltimore’s republic. Explored the labor forces and how social inequality had its roots in Baltimore.