1. Thrift
The History of
an American
Cultural Movement
Andrew L. Yarrow
In this lively and engaging book, Andrew L. Yarrow tells the story of a nation-al
movement that promoted an amalgam of values and practices ranging from
self-control, money management, and efficiency to conservation, generosity, and
planning for the future—all under the rubric of “thrift.” Emerging in tandem
and in tension with the first flowerings of consumer society, the thrift movement
flourished during the 1910s and 1920s and then lingered on the outskirts of Amer-ican
culture from the Depression to the prosperous mid-twentieth century.
A post–World War II culture that centered on spending and pleasure made
the early-twentieth-century thrift messages seem outdated. Nonetheless, echoes
of thrift can be found in currently popular ideas of “sustainability,” “stewardship,”
and “simplicity” and in efforts to curtail public and private debt.
“An important and original book. Yarrow does a terrific job of uncovering a wide
range of primary sources and putting them together to tell a compelling story
that hasn’t been told before.”—Lawrence B. Glickman, author of Buying Power: A
History of Consumer Activism in America
Andrew L. Yarrow is senior research adviser for Ox-fam
America and teaches twentieth-century U.S. history at
American University. He is a senior fellow at the Institute
for American Values and author of Measuring America: How
Economic Growth Came to Define American Greatness in the
Late Twentieth Century (University of Massachusetts Press,
2010).
Cover design by Jack Harrison
Front cover art: Assorted thrift campaign buttons alongside a photograph of the 1925 Thrift Champions at the
segregated African American Pearce School. All Images courtesy of the Institute for American Values
University of Massachusetts Press
Amherst & Boston
www.umass.edu/umpress
YAORRW Thrift Massachusetts