Susan Strausser Essay, Research Paper

Book Review # 1

History 110 Twentieth-Century U.S. History

Spring 2000

Title:

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Author:

Strasser, Susan

Publisher:

Pantheon Books

Date:

1989

Place:

New York

Pages:

339

Description:

Satisfaction Guaranteed was written in 1989 to describe Susan Strasser s views on the turn of the century advertisements and the effects that they had on purchasing by consumers. Strasser uses many examples of turn of the century advertising, and how it might have influenced housewives of the time to purchase certain goods over others.

The author gives her opinion on the effect of certain products, such as Crisco, to sway the average consumer to buy. She also states why she feels that these turn of the century products had such a great effect on women, as well the effect of mass producing disposable goods. She also gives her view on the lasting global effects of modern production.

Sources:

Susan Strausser uses many sources in her research for this book. In the end of the book she has 34 pages of footnotes regarding her resources. It is broken down into the different chapters and pages.

Criticism:

I really disliked this entire book. Strausser may have backed up her opinions with facts, but her opinion doesn t really come to any conclusion. I feel that she is using the advertising claims of Crisco to say how much women were oppressed and unable to better themselves. The book as a whole was well laid out and broken down into distinctive chapters. I just didn t like this book because I feel that people make there own decisions on what to buy in order to make their lives a little bit easer, not because they are feeling that they must.