ISBN: 0-684-87055-X
Pub Month: September 2004
Author: Juliet Schor
Imprint: Scribner
Online links about Born to Buy:
More advance praise:
"This brilliant, informative and deeply important book tells
us what the advertisers don't - the more advertising children
see and hear, the more likely they are to be depressed, anxious
and to suffer family conflict. The American dream isn't something
we buy, Schor wisely tells us; it's something we make and can,
if broken, repair. A book that will start a revolution..."
--Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of The Commercialization of
Intimate Life: Notes from home and work, and The Time Bind:When
Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work
"Born to Buy is an eye-opener. It illuminates marketers'
unrelenting exploitation of our youth; the well-being of children
has been made secondary to maximizing corporate profit. This book
is certain to shake us out of our complacency; I highly recommend
it."
--Alvin F. Poussaint, MD; Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical
School and Judge Baker Children's Center, Boston MA
"There must be a special circle of hell designed for those
who came up with the notion of marketing to young kids, and if
so Juliet Schor is its Dante--this is a tremendous book, in the
tradition of Fast Food Nation. "
--Bill McKibben, author of Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered
Age
" Juliet Schor has established herself as a sharp observer
and critic of American commercialism. In Born to Buy, this social
analyst and concerned mother turns her attention to marketing
for children, combining observation in the advertising industry,
interviews in a Boston suburb, and close study of merchandising
methods. Readers need not agree with all her arguments to learn
plenty about how relations between children and merchandising
media are changing, and what threats to children's well-being
those changes are producing. "
--Viviana Zelizer, author of Pricing the Priceless Child and The
Social Meaning of Money
" We worry about so many dangers to our children -- drugs,
perverts, bullies -- but seldom notice the biggest menace of all:
the multi-billion dollar marketing effort aimed at turning the
kids into over-sexed, status-obsessed, attention-deficient, little
consumers. Like her earlier books, Juliet Schor's "Born to
Buy" is a brilliant exposé and call to action. "
--Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed
"What a fascinating and mobilizing book! No mother or father
intends to turn over child-rearing to the consumer culture, but
the stress and speed of life wears down their resolve, making
television, toys, electronics and branding a kind of "shadow
parent" that literally spoils our youth. Juliet Schor gives
us ample evidence of the cost - to our children and society -
of this drift into corporation raised kids. Born To Buy will inspire
anyone concerned with the next generation."
--Vicki Robin, co-author of Your Money or Your Life: Transforming
Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence
"Juliet Schor is a human laser beam. Her careful research
and brilliant analysis are presented in lucid prose. Plato defined
education as teaching our children to find pleasure in the right
things. Most parents do their best, but they are fighting a culture
that educates our children to value all the wrong things. Children
are suffering mentally, physically and spiritually. Schor's book
can put on us a path towards once again protecting our children.
This may be the most important book of 2004."
--Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia and Letters to a Young
Therapist
Back to TOP |
