“Masterful. . . . Powerfully argued and deeply researched.” — Journal of Contemporary History
“Thoroughly researched, deeply grounded in archival collections, iconography, and secondary literature, and wonderfully illustrated with telling advertising imagery.” — Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
“Particularly valuable in that McGovern argues persuasively.” — American Journalism
“The latest addition to the important new literature on the political economy of consumer capitalism. . . . Represents a sturdy contribution to our thinking about what is arguably the most important question in contemporary American history.” — Indiana Magazine of History
“McGovern’s long awaited book rewards our patience as scholars with its exemplary study of how we lost our patience as a polity of consumers.” — American Historical Review
“A finely wrought, lavishly illustrated volume. . . . Highly recommended.” — CHOICE
“Provides a welcome addition to the canon of works on mass and consumer culture. . . . A meticulous analysis into the participation of two groups of people that have been instrumental in shaping the relationships between consumers. . . . Promises to provide fertile ground for discussion.” — Winterthur Portfolio
“McGovern enables us to appreciate the formative struggles that defined today’s 'common sense' understanding of the associations that link consumer spending to national citizenship, that put consumption at the center of the social world, and that define democracy as equal access to consumer goods. This is a wonderful book, brilliantly researched and elegantly written.” — George Lipsitz, University of California, Santa Barbara
“Sold American takes the reader on a fascinating intellectual journey through the febrile world of advertising publicists, copywriters, and critics as they debated the proper character and place of the consumer during the first half of the twentieth century. It is a compelling story of American citizenship that speaks not just to students of consumer culture but to all readers grappling with the meaning of the nation-state in an age of globalization.” — Jean-Christophe Agnew, Yale University
