ABSTRACT
Leading historians explore how our ideas of what is attractive are influenced by a broad range of social and economic factors. They force us to reckon with the ways that beauty has been made, bought and sold in modern America.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|118 pages
Images and Reforms
chapter 2|35 pages
Questionable Beauty
The Dangers and Delights of the Cigarette in American Society, 1880–1930
part 2|111 pages
Business and Work
chapter 5|27 pages
A Depression-Proof Business Strategy
The California Perfume Company's Motivational Literature
chapter 6|26 pages
“I Had My Own Business … So I Didn't Have to Worry”
Beauty Salons, Beauty Culturists, and the Politics of African-American Female Entrepreneurship
part 3|75 pages
Constructing Commodities
chapter 10|31 pages
“Loveliest Daughter of our Ancient Cathay!”
Representations of Ethnic and Gender Identity in the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. Beauty Pageant
