Abstract

What to Drive

This article presents information on several books. Some of the books are "Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America," by Jackson Lears and "Where the Suckers Moon: An Advertising Story," by Randall Rothenberg. The critique of modernity has become pervasive, as challenges come from a variety of disciplinary bases and political visions. Jackson Lears, by contrast, offers a critical voice that is distinctive and unmistakably serious. Rather than assume the postmodern position, he has been willing to take up a very sophisticated stance of antimodernism. The book is a bold, original, subtle and important book. Lears believes, the most vivid and even sensuous images in everyday symbolic universe derive from commerce. As Randall Rothenberg points out in "Where the Suckers Moon," there is so little product differentiation that creative personnel in the agencies are convinced that all truth is image and perception.