ABSTRACT
The end of World War II in 1945 had a great impact upon American consumption. The deep reservoir of consumer demand caused by retrenchment during the Great Depression, and then by shortages and rationing during the War, helped drive the postwar economy. New families and new "baby boom" babies needed provisioning and businesses quickly retooled from war production to consumer goods. This chapter reviews the macro-economic context of consumption, the development of television as a medium for entertainment and advertising, and the rise of suburban shopping centers as a major locus for browsing and purchasing. In the postwar 1940s and into the 1950s, millions of American women abandoned the social activism and workplace engagement of the Great Depression and World War II and returned to more traditional familial roles, or at least what they and society thought was traditional.
