Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970s

Sam Binkley

Published by Duke University Press 2007

Getting Loose

Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970s

Sam Binkley

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822389514

Overview
Contents

About this book

Examines the changing character of American consumer culture in the 1960s, 70s, and late 20th century generally, driven by changing forms of identity, notably a "loosening" of the self, by which Binkley means to evoke a wide range of identity pr

Author / Editor information

Sam Binkley is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Emerson College.
Visit the author’s blog.

Reviews

“Getting Loose is a work of historical sociology that both draws on and challenges central theoretical perspectives on consumption and consumer culture, identity, postmodernism and late modernity, post-Fordism, and contemporary moral culture through exceptionally creative analyses of 1970s lifestyle philosophies and practices.”—Don Slater, author of Consumer Culture and Modernity

“Getting Loose is an important and quite interesting study of the discourses of the 1970s lifestyle movement. It casts a whole new light not only on that epoch but, more importantly, on its relationship to contemporary self, identity, and the economy, especially consumer culture. Sam Binkley moves comfortably and insightfully between the most abstract of social theories and the most prosaic of social phenomena, using the former to offer new insights into the latter. He presents a panoramic view of the movement from the 1970s era of the loosening of the self to the reality of the early twenty-first century, where ‘we’re all loose now.’”—George Ritzer, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland, and founding editor, Journal of Consumer Culture

“[O]ne of the greatest strengths of Getting Loose is its ability to animate the seemingly vague notion of ‘loosening’ in its attention to the specifics of these texts. Perhaps the greatest insight offered is the transformation of the counter-culturally inspired loose life-style into the commercialized mainstream. . . . Binkley’s insights are original and compelling.”

-- Elana Levine Journal of American History

“With nearly 600 bibliographic entries, Getting Loose is among the most thorough studies of its kind.The book surveys the period in American society when 1960s counterculture developed into the consumer lifestyles we know today. But Binkley does more than simply mark the transition from yippie to yuppy. He shows how the emancipatory impulses of rebellion helped usher in the new world order of unrestrained global capital.”

-- Vince Carducci Popmatters

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction: Mediated Immediacy: Living in the Now Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: Middle Class in the Maelstrom
1. Of Swingers and Organization Men: Loose Modernities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
2. Experts Unbound: Intimate Professionals and the Value of Lifestyle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
3. Book as Tool: Lifestyle Print Culture and the West Coast Publishing Boom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Part II: Caring Texts
4. Being One: From Knowledge to Consciousness in the Spaceship Society Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
5. Loving Each Other: From Phony to Real in the New Togetherness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
6. Letting It All Hang Out: From Mind to Muscle in the Relaxed Body Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Conclusion: Morning in America: Pulling in the Slack Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 310
Illustrations
- Other: 27 illustrations

eBook

Published: April 27, 2007
ISBN: 9780822389514