A brief history of frugality discourses in the United States

Abstract

Public discourses advocating frugal consumption have had a long history in the United States. This study provides a brief account of six different periods of such anti‐consumerist thought and rhetoric: colonial, antebellum, Gilded Age, early twentieth century, World War II, and late twentieth century. The final section uses history to better understand the religious, political, and societal tensions that have characterized American frugality discourses.

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