Synopses & Reviews
How did powder and paint, once scorned as immoral, become indispensable to millions of respectable women? How did a Victorian "kitchen physic," as homemade cosmetics were called, become a multi-billion-dollar industry? In Hope in a Jar, historian Kathy Peiss gives us a vivid history in which women, far from being pawns and victims, used makeup to declare their freedom, identity, and sexual allure as they flocked to enter public life. She highlights the leading role of black and white women-Helena Rubenstein and Annie Turnbo Malone, Elizabeth Arden and Madame C. J. Walker-in shaping a unique industry that relied less on advertising than on women's customs of visiting ("Avon calling") and conversation. From New York's genteel enameling studios to Memphis's straightening parlors, Peiss depicts the beauty trades that thrived until the 1920s, when corporations run by men entered the lucrative field, creating a mass consumer culture that codified modern femininity. Replete with the voices and experiences of ordinary women, Hope in a Jar is a richly textured account of how women created the cosmetics industry and cosmetics created the modern woman.
Kathy Peiss, author of the highly praised Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York, teaches history at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She has written widely on women's history and culture.
In this vivid social history, Kathy Peiss shows how nineteenth- and twentieth-century American women, far from being pawns and victims, used makeup to assert their freedom, identity, and sexual allure as they flocked to enter public life. Hope in a Jar highlights the leading role of black and white womenamong them Helena Rubenstein, Annie Turnbo Malone, Elizabeth Arden, and Madame C. J. Walkerin shaping a unique industry that relied less on advertising than on women's customs of visiting (as in "Avon calling") and conversation. Ranging from New York City's genteel nail-enameling studios to the hair-straightening parlors of Memphis, Peiss depicts the beauty trades that thrived until the 1920s, when corporations run by men entered the lucrative field, creating a mass consumer culture that codified modern femininity.
From the "kitchen physic" beauty kits of Victorian times to contemporary mega-businesses like Revlon and Max Factor, this book offers a richly textured account of how women created the cosmetics industry and cosmetics created the modern woman.
"Incisive, lively, a model of everything social history should be."Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Incisive, lively, a model of everything social history should be."Los Angeles Times Book Review
"A meticulously, almost lovingly, researched social history."The New York Times
"Beguiling . . . Kathy Peiss urges us to go beyond simplistic theories and look at the considerably more complex and fascinating reality of cosmetics and commerce in this country."Washington Post Book World
"You don't have to wear mascara to enjoy this fascinating account of the cosmetics industry and the women who pioneered it."The Chicago Tribune
"A fabulous book that shows how women made their way through minefields of advertising and moral commentary . . . An astonishing array of materials with loads of delicious tidbits."Susan Porter Benson, author of Counter Cultures
"Hope in a Jar is wonderful to read and consistently enlightening. Peiss brilliantly weaves the stories of the immigrant and African American women who built the beauty industry into the larger history of women's changing lives."Susan Strasser, author of Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Making of the Mass Market
"Weaving together business history, history of women, history of advertising, and history of the body, Kathy Peiss illuminates both the hidden corners and visible theaters of American life. Big, bold, and captivating."Daniel Horowitz, author of The Morality of Spending
Review
"Incisive, lively, a model of everything social history should be." --
Los Angeles Times Book Review"A meticulously, almost lovingly, researched social history." --The New York Times
Review
"A meticulously, almost lovingly, researched social history." (The New York Times)
Synopsis
How did powder and paint, once scorned as immoral, become indispensable to millions of respectable women? How did a Victorian "kitchen physic," as homemade cosmetics were called, become a multi-billion-dollar industry? In Hope in a Jar, historian Kathy Peiss gives us a vivid history in which women, far from being pawns and victims, used makeup to declare their freedom, identity, and sexual allure as they flocked to enter public life. She highlights the leading role of black and white women-Helena Rubenstein and Annie Turnbo Malone, Elizabeth Arden and Madame C. J. Walker-in shaping a unique industry that relied less on advertising than on women's customs of visiting ("Avon calling") and conversation. From New York's genteel enameling studios to Memphis's straightening parlors, Peiss depicts the beauty trades that thrived until the 1920s, when corporations run by men entered the lucrative field, creating a mass consumer culture that codified modern femininity. Replete with the voices and experiences of ordinary women, Hope in a Jar is a richly textured account of how women created the cosmetics industry and cosmetics created the modern woman.
About the Author
Kathy Peiss, author of the highly praised
Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York, teaches history at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She has written widely on women's history and culture.
Table of Contents
Masks and faces -- Women who painted -- Beauty culture and women's commerce -- The rise of the mass market -- Promoting the made-up woman -- Everyday cosmetic practices -- Shades of difference -- Identity and the market.