Abstract
The consumer has become the lodestar of re-interpreting British politics from the 1940s and as a site on which historians can plot broader debates, something of an all-consuming subject. Zweiniger-Bargielowska has detailed the Conservatives’ assembly of a popular alliance against rationing and control as key to its electoral recovery from 1945 and advantage over a left that struggled with affluence from the later 1950s.2 ‘The battle of the consumer’, as Gurney has it, saw nothing less than the ‘atomized figure of the individual consumer’ became a ‘hegemonic influence across both polity and civil society, shaping the epistemologies and languages through which the political and economic domains were… represented’. For Gurney, this ‘helped undermine the Co-operative alternative to mass consumption’, but Hilton sees the same process serve as the basis for new forms of citizenship and politics, in which the Consumers’ Association (CA) was a prime mover. Mort similarly points to the increasingly common conception of political and consuming subjects, practices and discourses in this period, notably through the technologies of marketing and polling. Politics, no less than the rest of society, was consumerized or, critics felt, colonized by consumer values and practices.3
Leslie Adrian, ‘CA for TV?’, Spectator (1 April 1960), p.485.
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Notes
I. Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Austerity in Britain (Oxford, 2000);
L. Black, The Political Culture of the Left in Affluent Britain, 1951–64 (Basingstoke, 2003).
P. Gurney, ‘The Battle of the Consumer in Postwar Britain’, Journal of Modern History 77:4 (2005), p.959;
M. Hilton, Consumerism in Twentieth Century Britain (Cambridge, 2003);
F. Mort, ‘Competing domains: Democratic subjects and consuming subjects in Britain and the United States since 1945’ in F. Trentmann (ed.), The Making of the Consumer (Oxford, 2006).
On which see A. Offer, The Challenge of Affluence (Oxford, 2006);
M. Hilton, Prosperity for All: Consumer Activism in an Era of Globalization (Ithaca, NY, 2009);
T. Kasser, The High Price of Materialism (Cambridge, MA, 2003).
Which? (Winter 1958), p.3; (Winter 1959), p.35; Which? went monthly in April 1959; Christina Fulop, The Consumer Movement and the Consumer (London, 1977), p.38.
CA Council minutes (20 January 1959), Consumers’ Association Archive (CAA); R. Morse (ed.), The Consumer Movement: Lectures by Colston E. Warne (Manhattan, KS, 1993), p.200.
H.B. Thorelli, S.V. Thorelli, Consumer Information Handbook: Europe and North America (New York, 1974), p.19;
CA, Twelfth Annual Report of the Consumers’ Association (1969), pp.4, 11; Kelsey van Musschenbroek, ‘Mounting action by the militant shoppers’, Financial Times (10 March 1970);
CA, Which? and Consumers’ Association (London, 1965), p.5.
Eirlys Roberts, ‘CA’s part in the design of Products’ (29 June 1966); CAA A27; Which? (September 1960), p.205; Manchester Consumer Group newsletter (August 1967); Mary Adams papers (MAP), S322/240.
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C.A.R. Crosland, The Future of Socialism (London, 1956);
R. Harris, A. Seldon, Advertising and the Public (London, 1959), p.226.
‘The woman behind a hard look at cars’, Topic (20 January 1962); Fay, ‘The Last of the Fabians’; Asa Briggs, Michael Young: Social Entrepreneur (Basingstoke, 2001).
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D. Tench, The Law for Consumers (London, 1962);
H. Pemberton, Policy Learning and British Governance in the 1960s (Basingstoke, 2004), pp.63–66; Times (10 April 1980); Which? (October 1965), p.287. Mitchell was succeeded at the National Consumer Council by CA’s Maurice Healy.
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Eirlys Roberts, Consumers (London, 1966), p.6; Thorelli, Thorelli, Consumer Information, p.18;
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Stanley Alderson, ‘Buy the Improved Which?’, The Manager (July/August 1959), pp.472–473; ‘The Press Greets CR’, Which? (Winter 1958), p.20; Healy, ‘Reactions to the Car Supplement’; D. Horowitz, Vance Packard and American Social Criticism (Chapel Hill, NC 1994).
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Gilda Lund, You and Your Shopping (London, 1961);
Elizabeth Gundrey, Your Money’s Worth: A Handbook for Consumers (Harmondsworth, 1962).
Leslie Adrian (ed. Nancy Ryan), Consuming Interest, from The Spectator (London, 1961), pp.ix–x, 86; Spectator (23 November 1962), p.844, (23 April 1965), p.544.
CA, ‘Notes for CA speakers’, p.7; Gallup Poll, Enquiry into Which? (July 1962), p.3b, CAA A31; J. Mitchell, ‘Results of Questionnaire sent to members of the CA, November 1964’, pp.12–15, CAA A27.
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Cooper, Which? (January 1969), p.3; S. Bowden, A. Offer, ‘Household appliances and the use of time in the USA and Britain since the 1920s’, Economic History Review 47:4 (1994).
Hilton, ‘Fable of the Sheep’; CA Council minutes (8 February 1960); Elizabeth Gundrey, Help (London, 1967), p.5; Final Report of the Committee on Consumer Protection, Cmnd. 1781 (July 1962), para.890.
CA Council minutes (2 February 1959, 8 February, 14 March 1960); Robert Millar, The Affluent Sheep (London, 1963), pp.194–196.
In ‘Vers de Société’, Philip Larkin, Collected Poems (London, 1988), p.181; Andrew Robertson, ‘The Campaigners’, Twentieth Century (1968–9, double issue), pp. 10–11; Adrian, Consuming Interest, pp.ix–x.
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Richard Hoggart, A Measured Life: Part 3 — An Imagined Life (New Brunswick, 1994), p.63; On errors, Which? 25, p.38; ‘Rover 110’, Which? (June 1963), p.189.
— The catalyst’, The Manager (July 1961), pp.540–542; Sainsbury in Goldman, ‘Art or Science?’, p.1; K. Gales, T.M.F. Smith, ‘A Pilot Study of the impact of Which?’ (May 1961), p.11, CAA A27.
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S.S. Bloom, The Launderette: A History (London, 1988);
C. Booker, The Neophiliacs (London, 1969), p.178;
D. Sandbrook, Never Had It So Good (London, 2005), p.108;
H. Carpenter, That was Satire that was: The Satire Boom of the 1960s (London, 2000) p.288; L. Adrian, ‘The Persuasive Voice’, Spectator (12 June 1964).
John Bloom, It’s No Sin to Make a Profit (London, 1971), pp.30, 44, 55–81, 132–139, 160–165, 189, 224; ‘Bloom at the top’, Time (13 October 1961).
Daily Express (1 October 1964); James Thomas, Popular Newspapers, the Labour Party and British Politics (London, 2005), pp.51–53; Note from PM (31 August 1965), note to PM (23 April 1970), NA PREM 13/3295;
B. Levin, The Pendulum Years (London, 1970), p.155.
V. de Grazia, Irresistable Empire: America’s Advance Through 20th Century Europe (Cambridge, MA, 2005);
D. Horowitz, The Anxieties of Affluence (Amherst, MA, 2004); Hilton, Prosperity for All, chs.1–2;
L. Black, ‘“Free choice lies at the heart of our economic system”: A comparative history of post-war British and American consumer organisations’ in I. Theien, E. Lange (eds), Affluence and Activism (Oslo, 2004).
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S. McKellar, ‘“The Beauty of Stark Utility”: Rational consumption in America — Consumer Reports 1936–54’ in J. Attfield (ed.), Utility Reassessed: The Role of Ethics in the Practice of Design (Manchester, 1999); ‘Judgment at Mount Vernon’, Sales Management (2 April 1965); ‘Consumers Union: Feeding advice to hungry customers’, Business Week (20 March 1954);
L. Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic (New York, 2002), pp.130–131; Consumer Reports (April 1962), p.165.
Ruby Turner Morris, CU: Methods, Implications, Weaknesses and Strengths (New London, CT., 1971), pp.54–56; ‘Judgment at Mount Vernon’; Beem, Ewing, ‘Business appraises consumer testing’.
R. Nader, Unsafe At Any Speed (New York, 1965);
C. Warne, ‘Carrying the economics of dissent into effective action’ (1969), Thomas M. Brooks Papers Box 2 File 3 (Brooks 2/3), Consumer Movement Archive; Focus (September 1966), p.18.
D. Case, ‘The Consumer Movement in the 1960s’, Amherst College, BA, 1972, p. 108, Brooks 2/24; R.D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York, 2000).
C. Warne, ‘Economic and Social Aspects of Advertising’, Advertising Federation of America, 29 May 1961, Brooks, 1/47; ‘Judgment at Mount Vernon’;
Morris Kaplan, ‘Caveat Emptor’ (April 1965), p.8, Brooks 2/19.
Judgment at Mount Vernon’; Consumer Reports (May 1966), p.258; C. Warne, ‘Independent Consumer Testing Agency: An International Answer to Brand Name Advertising’, Zurich, 27 July 1961, Brooks 1/47.
M. Hilton, ‘Americanisation, British Consumerism and the International Organisation of Consumers Unions’ in M. Kipping, N. Tiratsoo (eds), Americanisation in 20th Century Europe (Lille, 2001);
C. Beauchamp, ‘Getting Your Money’s Worth: American models for the re-making of the Consumer interest in Britain, 1930s-1960s’ in M. Bevir, F. Trentmann (eds), Critiques of Capital in Modern Britain and America (Basingstoke, 2002).
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In CU, This is Consumers’ Union (New York, 1961), Brooks 2/16.
Jim Northcott, Value for Money? The Case for a Consumers’ Advice Service (London, 1953), pp.3–12.
R. Mayer, ‘The Entrepreneurial Elite and the Spirit of Consumerism: Finances and Strategy in the US consumer movement’ in A. Chatriot, M. Chessel, M. Hilton (eds), The Expert Consumer (Aldershot, 2006); Cohen, Consumers’ Republic p.364;
D. Bell, ‘Introduction’ in Michael Young, Social Scientist as Innovator (Cambridge MA, 1983), p.ix;
S. Wagg, ‘Comedians and Politics in the United States and Great Britain’ in S. Wagg (ed.), Because I tell a Joke or Two: Comedy, Politics and Social Difference (London, 1998).
Houlton, Which? Put to the Test, p.13; interview, Northcott, 14 February 2001; Mitchell, ‘Results of Questionnaire’ (1964), p. 12;
Gallup Poll, Which?: Final Report (May-September 1962), p.2, CAA A14.
CA Council minutes (9 January 1958); Thorelli, Thorelli, Consumer Information, p.14; British Association of Consumers (November 1956), CAA A27.
M. Hilton, ‘The polyester-flannelled philanthropists: The Birmingham Consumers group’ in L. Black, H. Pemberton (eds), An Affluent Society? (Aldershot, 2004); National Consumer (Autumn 1964), p.22; Labour Women’s Conference (1965), p.28.
B. Jackson, Equality and the British Left: A Study in Progressive Thought, 1900–64 (Manchester, 2007), p. 172; ‘Weybridge File’ notes, p. 12. Young to Goldman (23 September 1966), Yung 6/12/1.
Correspondence, James Douglas (8 January 2003); John Ramsden, The Making of Conservative Party Policy: The Conservative Research Department since 1929 (London, 1980), ch.10; Fletcher to Carberry (5 December 1955), CCO 3/4/21; CPC, Automation and the Consumer (1956), pp.35–36.
Douglas to R. Miller (27 April 1959), CRD 2/8/20; Phillip Goodhart, James Douglas, Patricia Mclaughlin, John Wood, Max Bemrose, Ian MacArthur, Choice: A Report on Consumer Protection (CPC, London, 1961).
Ken Young, ‘Orpington and the “Liberal Revival”’ in Chris Cook, John Ramsden (eds), By-Elections in British Politics (London, 1997), p.171.
B. Lancaster, A. Mason (eds), Life and Labour in a 20th Century City: The Experience of Coventry (Coventry, 1986), p.358;
Peter Goldman, Some Principles of Conservatism (CPC, London, 1961), p.2;
M. Jarvis, Conservative Government, Morality and Social Change in Affluent Britain, 1957–64 (Manchester, 2005).
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Rodgers-Brook meeting (16 December 1958); Young in CA Council minutes (30 July 1962); M. Hilton, ‘Consumer Politics in Post-War Britain’ in M. Daunton, M. Hilton (eds), The Politics of Consumption (Oxford, 2001).
Labour Party, Fair Deal for the Shopper (London, 1961), p.6.
Labour Women’s Conference (1970), p.27; Brook in RICA, British Co-operatives: A Consumers’ Movement (London, 1964), pp.3, 31–32.
Labour Party, Let Us Win Through Together (1950); A New Hope for Britain (1983);
L. Freedman, G. Hemingway, Nationalisation and the Consumer (London, 1950), p.3; Labour Party Research Department, R.176, ‘Consumer Advisory Service’ (Nov. 1952).
Michael Young, Small Man, Big World: A Discussion of Socialist Democracy (London, 1949), p.9;
Jeremy Mitchell, ‘A Triptych of Organisations: CA, SSRC, NCC’ in Geoff Dench, Tony Flower, Kate Gavron (eds), Young at Eighty: The Prolific Public Life of Michael Young (Manchester, 1995), p. 10; Edward Shils, ‘On the Eve’, Twentieth Century (May 1960), p.452; CA salary documents, MAP, S322/241.
Which? (October 1967), pp.292–293 Liberal Party, Shopping: Better Buys (London, 1961), Consumer Protection (1962); Labour, Fair Deal; Phillip Goodhart et. al., Choice;
M. Haynes, Advertising on Trial: The Case for the Consumer (Bow Group, London, 1961).
M. Young, ‘The Future of Consumer Affluence’ (1970), Yung 6/12/1; Why acquisitiveness?’ (1962), Yung 3/2/4/5; Young, Wilmott, ‘Does Advertising Influence People?’ (1968), Yung 2/1/4.
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Black, L. (2010). ‘Consumers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your illusions’: The Politics of the Consumers’ Association. In: Redefining British Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230250475_2
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