Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole

Walter Giersbach '61 writes:
Friends,

You may want to consider acquiring Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole by Benjamin R. Barber, '60 or '61. The New York Times Book Review (4/20/08) gave it a thumbnail, saying Ben's thesis is that "we live in a 'radical consumerist society,' shaped by an 'infantilist ethos' as potent as Weber's Protestant ethic once was. 'Affiliated with an ideology of privatization, the marketing of brands and a homogenization of taste'...this ethos sustains consumer capitalism 'at the expense of both civility and civilzation and a growing risk to capitalism itself."

Ben has been a prolific contributor to critical thinking. He is the Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and president and director of CivWorld. More on his publications can be found at http://www.benjaminbarber.com/biblio.html.

--Keep up the good work.

Walt Giersbach '61

1st floor Smith Memorial HC110.C6 B324 2007