George Will Reviews "The Age of Abundance"

AFTER the privations of the Depression and war years, Congress passed and President Harry Truman signed the Employment Act of 1946, which made it federal policy to maintain “the propensity to consume.” That mild noun hardly does justice to the primal urge, the almost metabolic necessity, for consumption that Americans felt as they came up, as it were, for their first breath of air since October 1929.

Youth, too, came knocking at the door of prosperity, eager — and able — to participate in the fun. On Dec. 15, 1954 , ABC Television showed the first installment of the series “Davy Crockett.” There were only three initial installments, the last of which was broadcast on Feb. 23, 1955. By then there was a nationwide craze for coonskin caps. By 1956, the average teenager’s weekly income/allowance was $10.55, equal to the disposable income of a family in the early 1940s...

full review: New York Times

related: The Age of Abundance, First Chapter