Product Description

Now available in English for the first time, Jean Baudrillard's classic text was one of the first to focus on the process and meaning of consumption in contemporary culture. Originally published in 1970, the book still makes a vital contribution to current debates on consumption. Many of the themes which would make Baudrillard famous appear here for the first time.

The book includes Baudrillard's most organized discussion of mass media culture, the meaning of leisure and anomie in affluent society. A chapter on the body demonstrates Baudrillard's extraordinary prescience for flagging vital subjects in contemporary culture long before others.

This English translation begins with an introductory essay by George Ritzer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128862 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
`The Consumer Society is the young Baudrillard at his best... a sociological study of the society of consumption of the finest order, this text continues to shed light on the subject and object of consumption, around which contemporary societies are organized' - Douglas Kellner, University of Texas

About the Author
Jean Baudrillard is the author of Symbolic Exchange and Death (1993), and most recently, The Perfect Crime (1997)

Customer Reviews

Consumers of the world...disconnect
Jean Baudrillard's second major text, written just two years after the influential events on Paris 1968, builds upon his critique of conventional Marxian economics that was at the heart of the earlier 'System of objects' (1968). In this translated edition, George Ritzer ('The McDonalization of Society', 2000) provides a useful introduction to the Baudrillard's work, towards both 'Consumer Society' itself and his later texts. This provides an essential grounding for students approaching Baudrillard for the first time, as I myself found, and gives a concise synopsis for others whom are familar with his work. The book itself is fantastically imaginative and creative in its description of consumer society. In his anaylsis of credit-systems, supermarkets, signs and hyper-reality, Baudrillard shows that he is well ahead of his time, being that the book was first published in 1970. His postmodern style of writting becomes apparent from very early on in the text, making it at times difficult to connect with, yet at its base 'Consumer Society' provides a far more modernist narrative than I expected from one of the most influential poststructuralist writers to date. Baudrillard's theory of sign, the organising basis of capitalist society, is certainly engaging, but can nonetheless be read as a supplement to conventional Marxain economics, rather than an alternative to that theory (see 'The Mirror of Production' (1975), for Baudrillard's 'break' with modernist narratives).

For students of human geography, sociology, philosophy and social theory Baudrillard's 'Consumer Society' makes essential reading as it points towards many of the postmodern/poststructuralist theories that are currently influential within contemporary social science. Those without a background in social theory may find it difficult to read, and for that I recommend Horrocks and Jevtic's 'Introducing Baudrillard' (1996) as a rough guide to Baudrillard's work.

I found the text thoroughly inspiring and truely redirected my thinking on Marxism and the political economy perspective. Thus for anyone studying the nature of late capitalist society, this book is must. My only criticism is that it seems to hold out on a revolutionary programme for social change, and lacks some of the grand statements of Baudrillard's later work.