Episode
A New American Consumer Culture
- Podcast
- A Journey into Human History
- Published
- Jun 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 432
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
While tensions between owners and workers continued to grow, and wage earners struggled with the challenges of industrial work, the culture of American consumerism was changing. Greater choice, easier access, and improved goods at lower prices meant that even lower-income Americans, whether rural and shopping via mail order, or urban and shopping in large department stores, had more options. These increased options led to a rise in advertising, as businesses competed for customers. Furthermore, the opportunity to buy on credit meant that Americans could have their goods, even without ready cash. The result was a population that had a better standard of living than ever before, even as they went into debt or worked long factory hours to pay for it. All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/18-4-a-new-american-consumer-culture Welcome to A Journey into Human History. This podcast will attempt to tell the whole human story. The content contained in this podcast was produced by OpenStax and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Access for free at https://openstax.org/details/books/us-history Podcast produced by Miranda Casturo as a Creative Common Sense production. No part of this podcast is made with generative AI Voice narration provided by computerized text-to-speech through voicemaker.in Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/a-journey-into-human-history--5860966/support .