The Journey of the American Shopper

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In 1962, essay called described a very optimistic future: “It is my belief,” Edward T. Chase wrote, “that in fact we in the United States are evolving beyond what J.K. Galbraith calls the ‘consumption society’—one that has mastered the problems of production—and are approaching a new order of society, the society of self-realization.” As my colleague Becca Rosen in 2015, “Man, if this guy could see today.” “A half-century of cultural edification has passed, and money and material accumulation still enthrall this country,” Becca reminded us then. Now, with the proliferation of online shopping, buying things is perhaps a more enthralling prospect than ever.