Synopses & Reviews
Wal-Mart is Americas largest retailer. The national chain of stores is a powerful stand-in of both the promise and perils of free market capitalism. Yet it is also often the target of public outcry for its labor practices, to say nothing of class-action lawsuits, and a central symbol in Americas increasingly polarized political discourse over consumption, capitalism and government regulations. In many ways the battle over Wal-Mart is the battle between “Main Street” and “Wall Street” as the fate of workers under globalization and the ability of the private market to effectively distribute precious goods like health care take center stage. In Wal-Mart Wars, Rebekah Massengill shows that the economic debates are not about dollars and cents, but instead represent a conflict over the deployment of deeper symbolic ideas about freedom, community, family, and citizenship. Wal-Mart Wars argues that the family is not just a culture wars issue to be debated with regard to same-sex marriage or the limits of abortion rights; rather, the family is also an idea that shapes the ways in which both conservative and progressive activists talk about economic issues, and in the process, construct different moral frameworks for evaluating capitalism and its most troubling inequalities. With particular attention to political activism and the role of big business to the overall economy, Massengill shows that the fight over the practices of this multi-billion dollar corporation can provide us with important insight into the dreams and realities of American capitalism. Rebekah Peeples Massengill is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University.
Review
"For years Wal-Mart and its critics have been locked in a high-profile contest to define the meaning and calculate the morality of America's largest private-sector employer. Rebekah Massengill brings a sophisticated understanding of language, culture, and ideology to her deconstruction of the rhetoric and symbolism deployed by the contestants, in the process demonstrating that concepts like family, community, fairness, and citizenship are both highly malleable and explosively political."-Nelson Lichtenstein ,author of The Retail Revolution
Review
"Wal-Mart Wars is a beautifully-written, clear-minded inquiry into one of the most important questions of our time: Do powerful corporate entities operate simply according to value-free conceptions of the marketplace, or can consumers and advocacy groups bring standards of moral worth into the picture? Rebekah Peeples Massengill provides a careful analysis of the grassroots arguments actually being used. This is a brilliant example of cultural sociology at its best." -Robert Wuthnow,author of Remaking the Heartland: Middle America Since the 1950s
Review
"This excellent book will convert those who still think that economy is devoid of meanings, judgments and emotions. Wal-Mart Wars is an important contribution to the growing scholarship on markets and morals, and a must-read for anyone who cares about how and why Americans argue about economic issues." -Nina Bandelj,author of Economy and State: A Sociological Perspective
Review
"Massengill, a lecturer in the department of sociology at Princeton, uses the debate over Wal-Marts policies and economic standing as a way of exploring the moral language used in larger political and economic discussions, such as health care..the book effectively demonstrates the deep intellectual divisions between progressives and conservatives."-Publishers Weekly,
Review
"This is first-rate sociology, deftly packaged to offer insight for both academic and popular audiences. Social advocacy groups would do well to look to Massengill's findings for advice on crafting their messages on economic issues."-Library Journal,
About the Author
Rebekah Peeples Massengill is a Lecturer in the Writing Program at Princeton University.
Table of Contents
C o n t e n t s Acknowledgments ixPreface xiiiPart 1 Why Should We Care about the Wal -Mart D ebate ?1 Constructing Moral Markets 32 Contextualizing the Wal-Mart Wars 19Part 2 Competing Frameworks for Market Moral ity3 Individuals and Communities 454 Thrift and Benevolence 775 Freedom and Fairness 115Part 3 Market Moral ity in Med ia and P o l itics6 How Wal-Mart Wins the War of Words 1537 Moral Populism in the Twenty-First Century 175 Appendix: Methodology 189Notes 195Bibliography 205Index 215About the Author 225