From Head Shops to Whole Foods - The Rise and Fall of Activist Entrepreneurs

From Head Shops to Whole Foods writes a new history of social movements and capitalism by showing how activists embraced small businesses. Joshua Clark Davis uncovers the historical roots of contemporary interest in ethical consumption while exploring how today¿s companies have adopted the language¿but not the mission¿of social change.

List of contents

Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Activist Business: Origins and Ideologies
2. Liberation Through Literacy: African American Bookstores, Black Power, and the Mainstreaming of Black Books
3. The Business of Getting High: Head Shops, Countercultural Capitalism, and the Battle Over Marijuana
4. The "Feminist Economic Revolution": Businesses in the Women's Movement
5. Natural Foods Stores: Environmental Entrepreneurs and the Perils of Growth
6. Perseverance and Appropriation: Activist Business in the Twenty-First Century
Conclusion
Notes
Index

About the author

Joshua Clark Davis is assistant professor of history at the University of Baltimore.

Summary

From Head Shops to Whole Foods writes a new history of social movements and capitalism by showing how activists embraced small businesses. Joshua Clark Davis uncovers the historical roots of contemporary interest in ethical consumption while exploring how today’s companies have adopted the language—but not the mission—of social change.

Additional text

Davis’s crisp prose makes for an accessible read and his book makes a very good case for studying activist entrepreneurs as part of the trademark movements of the 1960s, instead of focusing solely on demonstrations and mass meetings, and for appreciating their legacies on the contemporary marketplace. . . . Davis must be congratulated for contributing to the history of postwar business and the history of the long 1960s in what is ultimately a fine piece of scholarship.

Product details

• Authors: Joshua Davis, Joshua (University of Baltimore) Davis, Davis Joshua
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 29.02.2020
• EAN: 9780231171595
• ISBN: 978-0-231-17159-5
• No. of pages: 336
• Series: Columbia Studies in the History of U.S. Capitalism
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, Ethnic Studies, Entrepreneurship, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Economic history, c 1960 to c 1970, United States of America, USA, green business, Ethical issues & debates, History of the Americas, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / General