An important work because Abelson has, by examining the persistence of shoplifting in the well-ordered department stores of the late nineteenth century, unearthed part of the "unofficial" history of those establishments. As a result, she problematizes the oft-advanced theory that the rise of mass, corporate-controlled consumer culture has been an uncomplicated and unchallenged process. Abelson also reveals how contemporary theories of gender, class, and female physiology legitimated starkly different responses to women caught stealing.

A detailed analysis of the intricate marketing schemes devised by major American department store executives and their marketing teams during the first half of this century. Leach, however, overemphasizes and oversimplifies the power of such executives by failing to acknowledge the ability of individual consumers and smaller, rival merchants to resist this process. Ethnic and discount department stores, as well as the class and gender composition of their customer bases, do not fit so neatly into Leach's theory, and thus are ignored in his book.

Siry details the importance of architecture and new technologies in the evolution of this firm. Consideration of how customers have reacted to the store's appearance and facilities is, however, completely overlooked.

The most recent of the histories of Marshall Field and Company. More statistical and ostensibly analytical than Wendt's work.

A more readable look at Marshall Field's than Twyman's, Wendt and Kogan's book attempts to capture the some of the spirit of the store and the enthusiasm with which Chicagoans have long greeted it, albeit with a less critical eye than Twyman's. Includes a section on postwar, suburban expansion.