A broad subject that is also revealing how much I did not know about this subject. It takes the details to a clear understanding of the choices women made in purchasing and the development of modern Canadian culture.

I learned a lot reading this book. The author presents a history of women as the head of the household and how her purchasing power was influenced. It was fascinating how deciding which brand to purchase held such power. Once women realized the purchasing power they held how they used it to influence social movements like temperance and patriotic was eye opening. Although I was familiar with much of the information the author had me thinking about the purchasing power in a new way. There is a lot of good information here but I found it difficult to read. The information interesting I am just not a fan of the thesis style of writing. Anyone with an interest in women's history will enjoy reading this book.

Purchasing Power: Women and the Rise of Canadian Consumer Culture by Donica Belisle is a survey of the ways in which women, specifically white women, participated in and largely drove the rise of consumerism.

While the emphasis is on white women's actions and motivations it is not without making the elements of racism, classism, and nationalism visible. My impression on the rationale for the emphasis on white women is that they represented the bulk of the rise and that they offer, through the various movements and associated groups, the richest archival sources. Thus this works serves to both add to the current knowledge and offer places where other researchers can focus more closely on, for instance, one movement and take a more intersectional approach. Those avenues are mentioned here even though Belisle doesn't take those detours. That is not so much a weakness of the book as it is a function of keeping the work on topic and focused.

Depending on your level of knowledge of any of the major movements (temperance, conservation, home economics, feminist, and co-operative) there will be a great deal of new information for you. For instance, I was not aware that the role of redistributing the money within the family unit was as big a factor in the temperance movement as it was. Makes perfect sense and I knew that a couple of (in my case US) activists of the time mentioned this element, but I had not known that it was an established aspect of the whole movement.

I recommend this to any reader who wants to learn about the role of consumerism, both historically and by extension currently. The book doesn't make a large effort to bring the thinking into the present, though the theoretical influences she mentions serve that purpose to some extent, but that is because the book is about a specific time period. The main points, using products and buying habits to marginalize for example, are easily applicable to our current culture.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.