Since its early days of mass production in the 1850s, the sewing machine has been intricately connected with the global development of capitalism. Andrew Gordon traces the machine’s remarkable journey... Read More
Description
Since its early days of mass production in the 1850s, the sewing machine has been intricately connected with the global development of capitalism. Andrew Gordon traces the machine’s remarkable journey into and throughout Japan, where it not only transformed manners of dress, but also helped change patterns of daily life, class structure, and the role of women. As he explores the selling, buying, and use of the sewing machine in the early to mid-twentieth century, Gordon finds that its history is a lens through which we can examine the modern transformation of daily life in Japan. Both as a tool of production and as an object of consumer desire, the sewing machine is entwined with the emergence and ascendance of the middle class, of the female consumer, and of the professional home manager as defining elements of Japanese modernity.
Details
- Price: $85.00
- Pages: 304
- Carton Quantity: 20
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Imprint: University of California Press
- Series: Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes
- Publication Date: 1st November 2011
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- Illustration Note: 35 b-w photographs, 1 table
- ISBN: 9780520267855
- Format: Hardcover
- BISACs:
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
HISTORY / Asia / General
Reviews
- Anna Johns, H-Net"Gordon asks questions and draws connections that less ambitious studies of business or society alone cannot achieve . . . [he] reinvigorates the history of the sewing machine and suggests that there is much more to learn about this extremely significant piece of household technology."
- M. William Steele/International Christian University, Social Science Japan Jrnl“The book will excite readers interested in material culture, gender and socioeconomic change. . . . A brilliant portrait of modernizing Japan.”
Author Bio
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
Part One: Singer in Japan
1. Meiji Machines
2. The American Way of Selling
3. Selling and Consuming Modern Life
4. Resisting Yankee Capitalism
Part Two: Sewing Modernity in War and Peace
5. War Machines at Home
6. Mechanical Phoenix
7. A Nation of Dressmakers
Conclusion
Appendix: Some Notes on Time-Use Studies
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Preface
Introduction
Part One: Singer in Japan
1. Meiji Machines
2. The American Way of Selling
3. Selling and Consuming Modern Life
4. Resisting Yankee Capitalism
Part Two: Sewing Modernity in War and Peace
5. War Machines at Home
6. Mechanical Phoenix
7. A Nation of Dressmakers
Conclusion
Appendix: Some Notes on Time-Use Studies
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Since its early days of mass production in the 1850s, the sewing machine has been intricately connected with the global development of capitalism. Andrew Gordon traces the machine’s remarkable journey into and throughout Japan, where it not only transformed manners of dress, but also helped change patterns of daily life, class structure, and the role of women. As he explores the selling, buying, and use of the sewing machine in the early to mid-twentieth century, Gordon finds that its history is a lens through which we can examine the modern transformation of daily life in Japan. Both as a tool of production and as an object of consumer desire, the sewing machine is entwined with the emergence and ascendance of the middle class, of the female consumer, and of the professional home manager as defining elements of Japanese modernity.
- Price: $85.00
- Pages: 304
- Carton Quantity: 20
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Imprint: University of California Press
- Series: Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes
- Publication Date: 1st November 2011
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- Illustrations Note: 35 b-w photographs, 1 table
- ISBN: 9780520267855
- Format: Hardcover
- BISACs:
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social
HISTORY / Asia / General
– Anna Johns, H-Net"Gordon asks questions and draws connections that less ambitious studies of business or society alone cannot achieve . . . [he] reinvigorates the history of the sewing machine and suggests that there is much more to learn about this extremely significant piece of household technology."
– M. William Steele/International Christian University, Social Science Japan Jrnl“The book will excite readers interested in material culture, gender and socioeconomic change. . . . A brilliant portrait of modernizing Japan.”
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
Part One: Singer in Japan
1. Meiji Machines
2. The American Way of Selling
3. Selling and Consuming Modern Life
4. Resisting Yankee Capitalism
Part Two: Sewing Modernity in War and Peace
5. War Machines at Home
6. Mechanical Phoenix
7. A Nation of Dressmakers
Conclusion
Appendix: Some Notes on Time-Use Studies
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Preface
Introduction
Part One: Singer in Japan
1. Meiji Machines
2. The American Way of Selling
3. Selling and Consuming Modern Life
4. Resisting Yankee Capitalism
Part Two: Sewing Modernity in War and Peace
5. War Machines at Home
6. Mechanical Phoenix
7. A Nation of Dressmakers
Conclusion
Appendix: Some Notes on Time-Use Studies
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index